38 Weeks Later
by nekked
Summary: Ch. 13: He pressed his brows together, eyes slowly closing, the shot ringing out and echoing as it carved more wrinkles into his skin, another trench in his brain. Rated M for language, sexual instances and humor, disturbing events, etc. — LuNa; pregnancy/medley category
1. You're Out

**DISCLAIMER:**_ I do not own One Piece or any of its affiliated characters._

_Hope you enjoy reading~_

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><p>That feeling.<p>

That feeling you get when you know you're going to regret waking up and you can't remember why.

_Did I forget to put the lock back on the fridge after cleaning up..._

Nope. Not big enough.

_Did I hide my ink before dinner so Usopp, Luffy and Chopper don't finger paint with it…_

Nope. They were going to find it eventually anyway.

_Then what am I forgetting-_

**First rule of waking up with The Feeling: Open your eyes only after you've moved an extremity to make sure you want to see where you are. Arms are best, but legs work too. Opening eyes immediately may result in emotional trauma.**

Nami cracked one eye and was greeted by a nipple. At least that was what it looked like. She wasn't sure. Even through that foggy just-opened-my-eye haze, that thing her eye was currently seeing definitely resembled a nipple. If she focused really hard through the floaty feeling she had suddenly developed, it also felt like her face was moving up and down in a slow, rhythmic pattern with the nipple. Like the thing attached to the nipple was moving. Breathing. The nipple was breathing. Er. Wait. No. WHAT-

Both of Nami's eyes flew open. Wide enough to confirm a nipple was indeed what she was looking at. She willed her brain to catch up with the panic her eyes were feeling and make her other limbs do something. Her face got the message first so she peeled it from whatever it had been resting on and bonded with, the offending cheek coming away sticky. Like someone else's skin was what she had been sleeping on. Not that it was strange for a nipple to be attached to skin…but her face. On skin. And- what was with this thought sequence anyway. Brain. Work. Ugh. She felt sick.

Her eyes wandered from the nipple to the neck; long, tan, covered in hickey's. Strike one.

She cringed internally, raising her head further to study the face; eyes blind folded, mouth open and leaking drool, sleepy requests for meat being mumbled in the distinct voice of the one person she most did not want this to be. Strike two.

_No. No. No. No. No. NoNoNoNoNoNo-_

**Second rule of waking up with The Feeling: If you find yourself in a situation you definitely did not want to wake up to find yourself in, do not go out of your way to find something to make the situation even worse.**

By this time, feeling had returned to her other limbs. She attempted to push herself up from the chest beneath her and her arms shook with exertion. It was tiring to even keep her head raised. She could vaguely make out the familiar furnishings of her own room. Which meant they were probably on her bed. Yeah. Robin's bed was right over there. Huh. It kinda looked like some of her clothes were strewn about. And a pair of shorts that may or may not have looked like they could belong to Luffy…

Nami cranked her head back to face her current nightmare head on. There was still time to pretend this hadn't happened. If she couldn't confirm the face, who's to say she hadn't done it with some guy she picked up off the streets? If this was Luffy, (and she _still_ couldn't be 100% sure it was), she could somehow cover this up and think up an explanation. If the crew hadn't heard them…and if she could remember what happened last night...

_Why. Is. This. Happening. To. Me._

The Blind Folded Guy (who may or may not have been Luffy) let a sentence gurgle from his throat, prompting the red head to lean forward to see what he was saying.

"…Pirate…lunch box…Sanji…"

_Great. That narrows it down. I probably gave this dumbass the night of his life and he doesn't even have the decency to fantasize about me._

Through her own cynical criticism of her choice in partner, she realized she didn't even remember how this had happened. Or _anything_ before waking up this morning. And, taking a good look around for the first time, she was…a bit curious, to say the least.

The Man Who Might Be Luffy was lying face up with each individual limb lashed to the bed posts with a different colored thong. The sash over his eyes definitely looked like the same yellow one her captain wore, and she had already acknowledged the existence of hickey's, so she tried not to dwell on it. 'Tried' being the key word.

_Who knew I was so kinky, _she thought dryly.

Guy Who Might Be Luffy farted. She whimpered in self pity and let her face fall back to his chest.

_This is a dream. This can't be real._

Trying to follow up on that in the best way she could think of, she tried to climb off of her captive. She moved her hips to swing her leg over and froze.

_What…what is this sensation..._

She stared at the wall vacantly as her brain forced her to, if only for a brief moment, acknowledge what she was feeling. Taking into account there were only so many things that might fit in the human vagina when sitting on top of someone like this, for every option she knew had _not_ just slid out of her, another second that could've been used running to the bathroom was wasted. Nami came to a conclusion too late. She fell the rest of the way off the bed and scrambled to grab the trash bin on Robin's side of the room before she threw up.

_This cannot possibly get any wor-_

"Oi! Love Cook! What the hell- HOLY SHIT."

Nami immediately recognized Zoro's voice coming from outside the door. She heaved again, the panic in her gut now reaching the ridiculous mark.

_What do I do? I can't let anyone see me-_

She slowly turned to look at Guy Who Had An 80% Chance Of Being Luffy still sleeping soundly on her bed.

_Us. I can't let anyone see us like this._

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile, out on the deck…<strong>

_[Oi! Cook! Get a grip!]_

Zoro was not having a good day so far.

It had started off pretty promising, with an early skirmish against some stupid jerks who thought they'd try to mess with the Straw Hat crew. They'd showed up just a tad too early to receive any mercy from the future Greatest Swordsman In The World. Nothing like carnage in the morning.

_[Weren't you supposed to be watching Luffy? Wake up! Shit, I left Chopper back on the island…]_

He'd even had the thought that today would be fucking AMAZING after they discovered those huge barrels in the back of the enemy ship, alcohol being the one thing in his life capable of making _any_ day at least tolerable. Of course, nobody trusted_ him_ to open a goddamn barrel anymore because of that _one time_ he might've gone a little overboard with his swords and almost killed everyone. So what happens? The cook opens it, and blabs to Madam Killjoy when he finds wine inside, apparently so nice smelling (who the fuck smells wine?) nobody's allowed to drink it. All for a pat on the head and a word of praise. So _of course_, nobody gets alcohol unless they want to taste Nami's fists, which always seem to sting more when fueled by the promise of a large pay out. And pay out? Screw that. The only thing those cursed barrels had brought Zoro today was one pain in the ass right after another.

_[STOP BLEEDING, DAMMIT! YOU'RE GONNA SHRIVEL UP LIKE A RAISIN AND I'M GONNA HAVE TO WHEEL YOU AROUND EVERYWHERE BECAUSE OF YOUR USELESS BODY!]_

And she could deny it as _ma~ny_ times as she wanted, but shehad _definitely_ sampled it. How else to explain all the creepy shit she kept doing after lunch? Nami_never_ got drunk. So, either this wine _was_ pretty amazing, or she'd swiped more than he thought. Either way, she'd been nothing less than disgusting from that point on.

And Luffy. Fuckin' _Luffy_.

Jerk wasn't even there to get the Off Limits speech from her like everyone else, so what's he do while they're all trying to put together the cargo list? He decides to help himself. So now they're an entire barrel out. And who gets chewed out by the bitchy cook for it? Zoro. Because he forgot to take it out of the kitchen after lunch. Luffy didn't even get hit or anything. Just saunters into the aquarium room with a stupid grin on his face and starts babbling about how good he feels.

And that's when shit got _weird_.

_['BLACK CRIPPLE' SANJI, THAT'LL BE YOUR NEW NAME…HEY! ARE YOU LISTENING?]_

Like something out of those gross romance novels Robin's always reading (_NOT_ that Zoro would know what's in them because he would NEVER get bored enough to actually look at one…), they both just stood there. Staring at each other. Like nobody else was in the room. That's how it started.

Then it escalated into something Zoro might've expected from the stupid cook. Never from these two. She had exploded into an embarrassing fit of giggles and started twirling her hair, and basically acted like a dumbass, and all anyone could do was stare. And try not to barf. But maybe that was just Zoro.

This continued for a few minutes, with Luffy just kind of waving and slurring stupid shit, like how he liked how glittery her face was (?), and she just kept laughing and saying he was a big silly head (?) and late and needed to sit down. And then she _blew him_ a _kiss_. And he _reached out_ and _caught it_. And that was the last thing Zoro saw before literally having to leave the room for fear he'd lose his lunch.

_[Ok, uh, you stay here a minute, I'll get the ship back to shor- what the HELL happened! There's stuff everywhere…]_

After a few minutes of convincing himself that what he just saw was probably a result of dehydration (alcohol counts as hydration, right?) he's ready to go see if everyone's at least acting normal again. So what does he walk in to find? Nothing short of Nami ripping her bathing suit top off and lunging -that's right, _lunging_- for Luffy like a lion that hasn't seen an antelope in weeks. Then, _of course_, the cook blows a circuit trying to figure out if he should faint now that there's unclothed boobs in the room, or kick Luffy's ass. He does a combination, kicking at Luffy and then exploding into a nosebleed in the middle of his attack, and Zoro's left with the job of dragging his now twitching body off of them both. Robin, Brook and Franky drag Luffy and Nami apart, and Usopp and Chopper are in a panic about what's going on, why it's happening…

_[Cook, stay with me, man. I'll get us there in a few…wait, if you're here, where the hell's Luffy…]_

Next thing ya know, Luffy and Nami are locked in their separate rooms, and all anyone can think of is the wine. It's gotta be the wine. But what kind of wine makes you do stuff like that? Nami's always had a liver made of iron, and Luffy was more of a violent drunk than a flirt. Was there some kind of weird voodoo involved just like with every other strange event that occurred in the New World? Everyone agreed that might be it. So, _obviously_ the thing to do is try to get some information regarding why this stuff was making everyone go insane. The cook (after a quick recovery) volunteered to stay behind to make sure Luffy didn't get out, but apparently _that_ had been a bad idea. The remaining members of the crew had taken the wine to get an explanation from someone. An old man at a pawn shop on the side of the road apparently (and conveniently) knew a few things about the island it might come from. He also recognized the language the stuff on the side of the barrel was written in. He had even given them what looked to be a fucking owner's manual and a disturbing piece of advice: don't drink it.

_[…What's with these pictures…are these nudes? Of Nami?]_

Word travels fast, especially when you've got something of unknown value in your possession. So before you can say 'back to the ship', half the island is chasing them, screaming out offers of money and death threats if they don't hand over the barrels. And Zoro's just relieved that the ship is so close by, because trying to run and carry this awkwardly sized barrel is making things more than difficult. And then Usopp is screeching like a girl, and Franky's cussing up a storm screaming 'where's the ship', and Robin's the only one rational enough to actually look around and point it out. At first it looked like Sanji might've just taken it out of port to try to get away from the villagers, so there was more running after they evaded the locals and ran up to the cliffs to get a better look. After a few hours of just waiting for him to come back though, Zoro'd had enough and offered to swim out and check out the situation.

And so here they were: Zoro still wet and pissed that he'd had to do this in the first place, Sanji passed out and bleeding profusely in the middle of the deck with Nami's nudes scattered around him, a couple random bottles lying about and…clothing. Nami's clothing. Or, some of it. Unless Sanji or Luffy owned lacy underwear like that. Aaaaa~nd…cue bile in throat.

"What…the hell happened here," he murmured to himself, rushing over to the helm.

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><p><strong>Meanwhile, on the island…<strong>

"Guys…I don't think it was a good idea to send Zoro to get the ship back," Chopper said quietly. They all looked up and noticed the ship was now heading further away from the island.

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><p><strong>Third rule of waking up with The Feeling: Things may seem bad now, but everything always seems to work out somehow.<strong>

It was now or never.

Nami brushed her hand over the man's face and lifted the sash, daring to open one eye lid to confirm.

He did indeed look very much like Luffy.

She smiled sadly to herself and touched the scar underneath his left eye.

_I don't know how we ended up like this, but..._

Nami blushed a little and let the thought trail off, listening to the sound of his breathing and letting the immensity of their situation sink in even more.

_What do we do now?_

Strike three.

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><p><strong>**Kanye shrug**<strong>

**Read? Review? Yes? No?**


	2. Quick Shooter

"Zoro, do you not understand basic instructions? I said _port_. The ship is moving starboard. Work with me here. The fact that I can't even use basic jargon because I have to accommodate your moronics is a little disturbing."

"Ya know, you're being mighty bitchy. Maybe you should go sleep or something. I can handle this myself."

"Obviously not. You were ready to head out to sea when I came out here."

On the outside, Nami was desperately trying to maintain her normal face. Zoro was the only one on board besides Sanji. She had fully intended upon walking out of her room to make a plan as she went. But panic was now setting in, especially because it was pitch dark out.

_I don't remember what happened. Why is everyone else on the island? And how long were Luffy and I…alone?_

And there was stuff all over the deck. Most notably, her own underwear.

Taking one last glance at Zoro to make sure he was still on course, she sprinted down the stairs and began gathering up things so some of her dignity might be spared. Why was all this out? And all these empty bottles…

She turned to look over at where Zoro said he'd found Sanji. The blood explained itself, but the nudes?

_What does it MEAN…_

And it didn't end there. Luffy was still sleeping in her room. With any luck, she'd be able to think up some kind of excuse for where he could be before anyone suspected…that they had…

_My HEAD is KILLING me…_

Why hadn't he gone on the island with them? Why hadn't _she_ gone on the island with them? How had they gotten so forgone that they'd ended up…like _that_…

She groaned, dropping the pile of undergarments and stumbling to the side of the ship. Was it just her, or was it rocking more than usual? Oh well. The island was pretty close by now. It was too dangerous to go much further, even with Sunny's lights on.

_I gotta think of something. If I could just remember one thing…_

Zoro had said he needed to ask her some things, but she'd panicked and gone into business mode, not even giving him a chance to follow up. Thank god he'd said everyone else was on that island, otherwise she would've assumed he knew what he was doing.

Her eyes widened as she saw a small fishing boat approaching, Franky's nipple lights reaching out over the water as everyone else neared the ship. She grabbed her stuff and ran up to the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Luffy was still out of it, still naked and tied to the bed. She dumped the pile of underwear on him and started pacing the room, desperately trying to make a connection.

_Loss of memory…Luffy…uh…underwear…_

She laughed out loud bitterly.

_Yes, I already know we had se- er…did things. I need something a little more informative…_

She heard more voices outside the door. Somebody knocked.

"Navigator-san, are you in there?"

Shit. Robin.

"Coming!" Nami said pleasantly, taking the trash bin she'd puked in and moving it behind her bed so Robin might not notice. She frowned when she looked at it.

_Glitter…?_

Luffy still hadn't woken up. Should she wake him and have him get dressed so they could pretend they had just been talking? No, that would take too much time.

An idea came to her, one that was just crazy enough to work.

_It has no choice but to work if I don't want to die of embarrassment_.

She sighed, turning the door knob and peeking her face out from behind the door.

The first thing she noticed was that _everyone_ seemed to be waiting for her to come out. They all stood at the bottom of the stair case. They didn't look happy.

"Hey guys," she said miserably.

"Nami, we need you to come out here and discuss some things with us," Usopp said, holding up one of the nudes. She internally berated herself for forgetting to grab them on her way in.

"I wish I could, but I don't feel well at all right now," she said, groaning for effect. "I keep…uh…throwing up." It was mostly true. She _did_ feel awful. And she _had_thrown up. To appease them though, she squeezed her way through the door and leaned her back against it like she was too weak to stand.

"Nami, you look really sick," Chopper said worriedly, taking a step forward. "I can give you some medicine-"

"Hold up a minute," Usopp said, narrowing his eyes. "Let's back track a second."

_Back track? What's he talking about?_

"We're dealing with weird wine aren't we? She probably just has a giant hangover," he said, folding his arms.

_Wine? Hangover? What?_

"That's stupid, Usopp," she said laughing lightly, "You know I don't get drunk. And I haven't even drunk anything since…well, a few days ago, actually…"

_That's right…when do my memories stop?_

Everyone stared at her silently, which put her on a new level of uncomfortable.

"Chopper, go give Sanji his transfusion," Usopp said slowly, never taking his furrowed eyes off of Nami. Chopper excused himself, glancing one last time at her.

"Navigator-san, what day is it," Robin asked gently, putting a hand on her shoulder. Nami was already pale, but she realized they had figured out she couldn't remember anything and felt all color drain from her face. So something must have happened that might incline them to suspect…

_Did…did I really get drunk? And now I can't remember?_

"It's pretty late, so I think I'm gonna try to sleep this off," she said with forced cheerfulness. "You guys say I got drunk, I guess I'm gonna have to take your word for it. See you in the morning. Robin, it might be a good idea for you to sleep in the library tonight-"

"Not so fast," Franky said, pushing his sunglasses up. "Where's Mugiwara?"

Nami had turned her back to go back in the room and was grateful they couldn't see her momentary look of panic. She looked back over her shoulder, feigning confusion.

"He wasn't on the island with you guys?"

"Nami…do you really not remember anything about today?" Usopp asked impatiently.

"It was the strangest thing my eyes have seen," Brook said. "Though I have no eyes to see…"

"What happened?" Nami asked, hoping to get some sort of clue.

"OUR CAPTAIN," Franky said loudly, bringing the conversation back to full circle. "Where is he? Have you really not seen him?"

"I've been sick in here since I woke up," Nami confirmed, holding her stomach. "Then I heard Zoro and came out to see what was going on."

"Well, something happened, Nami, because I doubt Sanji drank all these bottles himself. And the nudes," Usopp said, holding another one up, "Where the hell did these come from?"

"And there was underwear," Zoro interjected, narrowing his eyes. "It magically disappeared when you guys finally came back."

"And whose fault is it for taking the ship so goddamn far away?" Usopp said poking Zoro's arm. Zoro slapped at his hand.

"Maybe Sanji-kun keeps a collection," Nami said, shrugging. "Maybe he just got carried away with his one man party while you were gone."

"You don't seem too worried about where Luffy could be," Zoro pointed out.

"I don't even know what's going on," Nami said, eyes wide with innocence. She noticed for the first time that Robin was looking at her funny.

"I think…we should discuss this in the morning," the raven haired woman said, yawning. "It's been a strange day."

"Robin," Usopp said narrowing his eyes. "You know something."

Robin smiled warmly. "What makes you think that, Sniper-kun?"

"This is serious," he said. "When we left Luffy and Nami with Sanji, they were both acting ridiculous. And we know for a_ fact_ that Luffy was drunk. If Sanji was indisposed and Luffy got out, he could've fallen over the edge of the ship and into the water. He could be dead. And we'd never know. You're smart enough to figure that out by yourself. And yet you're suggesting we go to sleep?"

There was an eerie silence.

Robin shrugged. "I simply don't think Senchou would die in such a stupid way."

"DON'T THINK YOU'LL GET OFF WITH SUCH A COP OUT ANSWER," Usopp screeched, pointing a frustrated finger at her.

"So you think I know where Luffy is," Nami said, eyes reflecting some hurt at their distrust. "even though I've already told you what I know? Are you sure you looked everywhere?"

_Wait…Luffy…drunk…"got out"?…Why would Sanji-kun have to watch us?_

"Can you blame us?" Zoro said bluntly, glaring at her. "Luffy isn't here. The only people on the ship with him were you and the cook. The cook was in bad shape when I found him. But YOU were well enough to come yell at me about my driving."

"So you're blaming ME?" Nami tried for the guilt trip technique. She moved from the door and marched down the stairs, right up to Zoro until she was glaring at him mere inches from his face.

"FIRST of all, if I hadn't come out to _help_ you, we'd have left everyone here. SECOND of all, you guys keep talking about things _I don't even understand_. What wine? Why Luffy? Drunk? Sanji-kun was _watching_ him? If it was so bad, why didn't more people stay behind?" She poked Zoro mercilessly in the chest. "What if he's on that island RIGHT NOW, ALL ALONE, SCARED, HELPLESS...WHAT KIND OF FIRST MATE ARE YO-"

The door to the girls room flew open with a loud creak. Everyone turned to stare. Nami felt sick all over again.

There stood Luffy, still completely naked, and rubbing his eyes like he'd literally just woken up. One of the thongs was still wrapped around his ankle, dragging innocently as he padded his way down the stairs towards them. Another was stuck on his head, clinging to a few stubborn pieces of messed up hair.

"You guys are LOUD," he drawled.

No response was given.

Franky, Usopp and Brook's jaws dropped to the deck, their faces flushing in realization. Zoro paled and let one solemn hand come up to cover his traumatized eyes. Robin stared shamelessly at her captain's ass as he stumbled down the stair case.

"Nami, where's my hat," he asked drowsily, coming right up to her. She refused to look him in the eye.

"I…I don't know."

He grunted, then walked through the parted crowd toward the kitchen, like he was going to eat now that she'd disappointed him. Chopper came back through the door, humming cheerfully.

"Sanji should be all better by…morning…" He stared at Luffy's naked figure coming towards him, eyes bugging out to saucer size the closer he got. When he finally passed without acknowledging his doctor and disappeared through the door, Chopper turned to everyone.

"Um…I found Luffy."

* * *

><p>"Alright, Nami."<p>

Usopp shined the small desk light right in her face, making her cringe.

"Tell us exactly what happened."

"I DON'T WANT DETAILS," Zoro bellowed from the side lines. "AND TURN ON THE GODDAMN LIGHTS. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

"Fine," Usopp flipped on the regular lights begrudgingly, then sat back down to face their navigator across the dining room table. Everyone else sat at random around the room, all of them waiting to hear an explanation.

Nami closed her eyes and ran a hand through her long hair. "Before we start, I'd just like to lay out some ground rules-"

"She said 'lay'," Usopp giggled, Franky and Brook struggling with their own laughter. They were silenced by a fist to the face, each of them.

"GROUND RULES," Nami growled, sitting back down. "No cracks about…uh…you know…"

"That's too much to expect," Zoro said. "It's your own fault. Having sex with Luffy is pretty much asking-"

Nami made a strangled noise and signed for him to zip it. "Can we NOT?"

"What happened to me?" Luffy's head popped up from behind the kitchen counter, face stuffed with food that was originally supposed to be that night's dinner.

"PUT ON SOME GODDAMN CLOTHES," Zoro yelled, punting him out the door. Nami whimpered and let her head hit the table.

"I'm sorry I wasn't much help to you, Navigator-san," Robin shrugged. "I tried to distract them since it looked like you wanted to keep it a secret." Nami whipped her head around to look at her.

"You knew Luffy was- wait, you used your ability right? I should've known…"

Robin shook her head and smirked. "I didn't need to." She pointed to a spot on her neck. "_That_ was a loud enough indicator."

Nami's eyes widened in horror as her hand flew to try to cover the hickey. Usopp, Franky and Brook started laughing again. Zoro snorted, trying to muffle himself with one hand.

"Is it time for bed yet?" Chopper asked sleepily. "I'm tired."

"We all are. But I don't think I'll be able to sleep now," Zoro said, straddling a chair next to Usopp and staring at Nami. "I want to enjoy this. Do you know what kind of hellish day we've had because of you guys?"

"I already told you I can't remember anything," Nami said in an exasperated voice. "I woke up and…there was Luffy."

"So, you don't even remember any of the act?" Robin inquired. Nami turned red and glared at her.

"Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you about it," she seethed.

"But I think we're all a little bit curious," Robin said casually, getting up to fix some coffee.

"You guys are the worst," Nami mumbled.

"I can only imagine how that would play out," Usopp said through his laughter. "_Oh Nami, don't worry about a thing_," he said in a ridiculous Luffy-esque voice, looking into Brook's non-existent eyes, "_I'll take care of you._"

"_Oh my, captain,_" the skeleton answered passionately in his best Nami voice, wrapping his arms around Usopp, "_Please be gentle. Though I have no skin to feel with. YOHOHOHOHOHO~_"

This time Zoro fell out of his chair with everyone else, Robin shaking her head at their antics.

"No, no, it's more like_ this_," Franky said tearfully, "_You taste better than meat, Nami. I only want to eat you from now on._"

"STOP IT YOU ASSHOLES," Zoro pleaded, pounding the floor boards.

"YOU GUYS," Nami screeched, face steaming in embarrassment. "THAT'S NOT HOW IT WENT."

"HOW DO YOU KNOW," they all howled, "YOU CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING! WAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"You guys are going to wake up Sanji," Chopper said, unamused.

"That is NOT what we want," the red head roared, delivering punches to silence the lot of them. "Sanji-kun must NOT find out about this."

"And_ why_ exactly- Oh. I see your point," Usopp said, rubbing his head and frowning.

"We're sorry, Nami-nee, it's just so…_funny_…to think of…you guys…_.like that_," Franky was practically biting his tongue to keep his giggles tame.

"Well, I'd appreciate it if I could just forget about this whole thing," Nami said miserably, taking the cup Robin offered to her.

"That's a bit idealistic. You know we're never going to let you guys live this down. At least not for a while," Zoro said, smirking.

"What's a little give and take between nakama," Robin said smoothly, sipping her coffee. Nami glared at her.

"Don't get any ideas. I don't like you_ that_ much," she warned. Robin chuckled.

"And what about Luffy-san," Brook interjected. "It takes two to tango. I wonder how he's going to approach all of this from now on."

"I want to ask him some things," Usopp said slyly.

"I FORBID IT," Nami said, slapping him. "You guys are already perverts. I don't want you asking him _anything_. With any luck he'll think he was tied to my bed as a joke."

The room became a black hole of awkward.

"…You _tied_ him to your _bed_?" Usopp whispered in disgust.

"I don't wanna know, I don't wanna know, I don't wanna know..." Zoro repeated, pale as a ghost and smacking his palms to his ears.

"Oh my," Robin said, raising a teasing hand to her face, "How scandalous."

Nami died within herself.

"There are children in the room, Nami-san," Brook scolded, patting Chopper's sleeping head, "But they seem to be asleep, so please continue."

Franky punched him, tears rolling down his face.

"Mugiwara must've been so scared…waking up naked in a room you don't recognize…I know exactly how he fee-"

"WE DON'T WANNA HEAR THIS," Zoro roared, giving him a lump to match Brook's.

"I suppose it's not surprising," Nami turned to await Robin's comment, "Senchou is a powerful man. Gaining sexual excitement from seeing him tied up would probably be a normal reaction-"

"I DON'T WANT YOU ANALYZING THIS," Nami said, fangs bared.

"Is this gonna be, like, a _regular_ thing, or was it genuinely a product of alcohol consumption," Usopp asked suspiciously. Nami pushed her foot in his face.

"Ugh. You're all the WORST. I'm going to sleep," she said, whirling towards the door in anger. "Call me when you're all mature enough-"

She bounced off of Luffy's chest as he came through the door, stumbling backwards a little. She grabbed the arm he put out to steady her, then flinched a little at his touch. He blinked at her, then frowned.

"Speak of the devil," Zoro muttered under his breath.

"Did you guys bring some friends back from the island with you?" Luffy asked, looking around the room. He still sounded immensely tired. "There's some guys outside on the deck."

Everyone looked at each other, then shuffled out the door to see what he was talking about.

Laying on the grass, all of them unconscious and foaming at the mouth, were five men. They were dressed all in black, and it looked like they were armed.

"I didn't mean to use my haki, but they surprised me. I guess I got carried away," Luffy said, scratching at his neck.

"Why was nobody on lookout?" Nami asked. She turned to Zoro. He glared back.

"Don't look at me. It's your fault we were all caught off guard and in the kitchen."

"WHAT?" she bellowed, ready to kill him. Robin put one hand on her shoulder.

"Settle down, Navigator-san." She turned to the other members of the crew with a frown.

"They were probably from the island," Franky said.

"I bet they were after the wine," Usopp said, eyes narrowing. "So there were still some crazy people left after we escaped."

"Wine?" Nami and Luffy said at the same time. They looked at each other. Nami turned away from him after a few seconds. Everyone else stared at them.

"Do you guys really remember _nothing_?" Usopp asked.

Nami was about to open her mouth to confirm, but Luffy answered first.

"You mean the stuff from this morning? Why would they want that?"

Everyone was startled.

"Lu-Luffy, you know what they're talking about?" Nami stammered, a little unsure of what that meant.

"More importantly…Luffy, how did you know we were_ on an island_?" Usopp asked cautiously.

"That's where you guys said you were going before you left me here," Luffy replied, pouting. "Sanji wouldn't let me out of the room. I had to wait for Nami to come get me."

Black hole of awkward silence.

"So…Nami…let you out of your room," Zoro stated monotonously. Everyone turned to stare at the accused. She turned bright red.

"Yep. She told me she'd help me train to pass the time," Luffy said simply. "We got a lot done while you guys were gone."

There was a shattering sound as Franky's sunglass lens' broke, tiny pieces of tempered plastic falling to the deck as his eyes bugged out of their sockets. Usopp followed suit. Brook's jaw fell off.

"So _that's_ what she told you," Robin mused. Nami fell to her knees next to her.

"How…how are you able to remember that? They said we got drunk-"

"Yeah I think we were," Luffy said, looking up at the sky and thinking hard. "It was kind of weird, though. You were funny. You brought out all your underwear and made me pick out the ones I liked." He laughed loudly. "I didn't know you had so much underwear…I just picked all the shiny ones…"

"Of _course_ you did," Usopp said witheringly. He whirled on Nami and pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Just what the hell did you DO? He thinks your sexual escapade was a TRAINING SESSION."

"I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON ANYMORE," Nami sobbed, finger nails mussing her own hair in frustration.

"ME NEITHER," Brook cried, tears falling. "THOUGH IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE BECAUSE I HAVE NO BRAIN TO COMPREHE-" Franky punched him before he could finish.

"Senchou, what exactly happened after we left," Robin asked calmly.

"I told you. Nami came and got me."

"How did you get out of your room?" Usopp asked Nami. "We had Sanji guarding your doors and- OOooooh…" Slight realization hit him and he slapped his forehead.

"You think the cook let her out of her room?" Zoro said, eyes widening as he caught on.

"She probably sweet talked him into opening the door," Franky said, picking up the pieces to his sunglasses.

"Then wouldn't he get pissed if Nami started coming onto Luffy in front of him?"

"The nudes," Robin reasoned, "If he saw them before Nami let Senchou out…"

"SO SHE WAS PLANNING ALL THIS WHILE SHE WAS IN HER ROOM?" Usopp said, flabbergasted.

"She is a former thief," Zoro said, shrugging. "This was probably a piece of cake for her to pull off."

"WE WERE GONE FOR LIKE, SIX HOURS."

"Yeah, well, last time I checked it don't take that long to get the job done," Zoro said folding his arms. "I have a feeling Luffy's a quick shooter…"

Nami scrambled up from her fetal position on the ground, dry heaving over the side of the ship.

"I think we should stop for tonight," Robin said, giving Nami's shivering back a concerned look. "Nami-chan is probably in shock."

Luffy furrowed his brow. "Is Nami sick? Where's Chopper, shouldn't she see him?"

"She probably just needs some sleep, Senchou," Robin replied, giving him a sad smile. Luffy blinked at her, then at Nami, who dragged herself back over to the circle.

"I've gotta sleep you guys," she said in an exhausted voice. "I can't…" She looked over at Luffy, feeling like she might cry. "I can't think about all of this right now."

Robin grabbed her around the waist and supported her as they went up the stairs. The guys watched for a minute, then looked at the five unconscious guys still laying on the ground.

"I'll send them back in their boat," Franky said. "I've gotta send the one we came over in back anyway. If I take Mini Merry I should be back in a few."

"Sounds good. I'll grab Chopper and meet you guys in the room," Zoro grumbled. He turned to Luffy before venturing into the kitchen.

"You. We're having a meeting. Now. Get your ass in the room."

Luffy tilted his head, a little confused. Then he shrugged and trudged off to the room behind the others.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile in the girls room…<strong>

Robin stared at Nami with a look of shock.

"Navigator-san, why didn't you say anything-"

"I…I didn't think about it until Zoro said that. I mean, I did when I first woke up, but it didn't process," Nami quivered, scared tears rolling down her face. "Robin, he didn't pull out. He didn't pull out, and I didn't have anything…"

"Navigator-san, was this your first time?" Robin asked gently, crouching down so she and Nami were eye level with each other on the floor. Nami just continued to cry.

"He doesn't even know…he doesn't know any better…and I made him do something like that," she sniveled, a hard wail escaping her mouth. Robin folded her arms around her and rubbed her back.

"…Nami-chan, do you have…feelings for Senchou?" she whispered.

Nami didn't answer. But it seemed like hours before Robin finally felt her fall asleep against her shoulder.


	3. Big

"So…how did it _feel_," Usopp asked curiously, looking at Luffy from his bunk.

"NOT what we're here to talk about, moron," Zoro said immediately, tucking Chopper in.

Luffy quirked an eyebrow at Usopp. "How did it feel when you guys left me here to go to the island yourselves?" He glowered at his friend. "It sucked."

"Not _that_," Usopp continued, despite Zoro's warning. He narrowed his eyes and put a hand up so the swordsman might not hear. "Doing 'it' with Nami."

"I honestly don't care to talk much more about it," Franky said solemnly, plopping on the couch. "Nami-nee looked pretty shaken. And we probably didn't help the way we were all making fun of her."

"I'm still all ears," Brook said. Everyone turned to him expectantly.

"Except I have no ears to hear with. YOHOHOHO~"

"This is serious," Zoro said, eyes dark. "It was funny to think about at first, but this is territory I don't do well with. Emotional shit. Nami's a girl. Girl's look at these things differently than we do." He folded his arms. "They start expecting things."

"You seem to understand this quite well," Usopp said suspiciously, narrowing his eyes. Zoro turned away and smirked.

"I got nineteen years worth of life experience under my belt before I met you guys. Don't think I'm so naive," he said, leaving just enough to his comrade's imagination. Usopp cringed, having a hard time seeing Zoro as the proverbial heart breaker.

"Did I miss something?" Luffy asked, completely oblivious. "What happened to Nami?"

Everyone stared at him.

"You've gotta be shitting me," Zoro muttered.

"Mugiwara, that's kind of pushing it," Franky grumbled. "Even for you. We've already established you remember what happened."

"And that's still bugging me," Usopp muttered. "Why does Nami remember nothing, while he can even remember events _after_ drinking? And almost an entire barrel…how is that even possible…."

"It tasted good," Luffy said simply, pursing his lips and swinging his legs over the side so he could talk with all of them. "Did Nami drink it too? Is that why she's sick?"

"If that were the case, then you should feel about ten times as sick as her," Usopp reasoned.

"Yeah," Zoro said, frowning. "Why aren't you sick? Do you feel hung over?"

"Nope." He grinned widely. "I actually feel…really good."

"I just bet you do," Usopp said sourly. Zoro grit his teeth and tried to redirect his thoughts.

"Maybe Nami didn't drink enough of it?" Luffy offered.

"It's more likely that she…over exerted herself helping you train, Luffy-san," Brook proposed.

"We're not _still_ going on about that," Zoro scoffed, flaying a hand in Luffy's direction. "There's no fuckin' way he'd think that was training. I refuse to think he's _that_uninformed." He turned slowly to stare at his captain, his useable eye a bit doubtful. "At least, I'd _really_ like to think he's not…"

"I don't know," Luffy said in response to Brook, his head tilting unnaturally and his face taking on the expression of a confused frog. "Nami seemed to be having a lot of fun while we were doing it."

Silence.

"I was kind of confused about why we had to be naked, though," he continued. He shivered a little and narrowed his eyes, seemingly having recalled something unpleasant. "She was scary at first, too."

Dead silence.

"But," he chirped, attitude turning a one-eighty, "it wasn't so bad after I got used to it. I felt…energized." He looked down at his now clothed loins, lost in thought. "There are mysterious ways of obtaining energy in this world." He muttered a final 'mystery energy' to himself and grinned.

"IT'S NOT A GODDAMN MYSTERY," everyone yelled at the same time, Zoro falling on his face and weeping for himself and his moron captain.

"It's common to achieve a sense of positive energy because of the release of endorphins during sexual activity," came a muffled murmur from out of nowhere.

"Who said that," Franky asked warily, looking around the room.

"You guys are so noisy," Chopper said, raising his head from his pillow. "Can't you talk about this tomorrow?"

"CHOPPER?" they all screeched in unison. Luffy just looked down at him and smiled.

"Hey, Chopper. I was just telling them about-"

"I know," the doctor said impatiently, rubbing his eyes. "You were just detailing your lack of actual knowledge on a sensitive subject. What a surprise." He groaned at Luffy's blank stare and flopped his face back to the pillow.

"I'll help you guys tomorrow. So just let me sleep now."

"Chopper," Usopp mouthed incredulously, "you…you know about-"

"What kind of doctor would I be, Usopp, if I didn't have basic knowledge of the human endocrine system and reproductive functions." His cute glare would have made anyone laugh under other circumstances. His condescending tone, however, made them all gape like fish at how little they apparently knew that he knew about.

"Endo…huh?" Luffy asked, furrowing his brow.

"GOODNIGHT, guys," the reindeer growled.

And that was the end of that.

* * *

><p>When Nami awoke the next morning, she was laying beside Robin in the older woman's bed. She smiled weakly at her friend's sleeping face and got up quietly so as not to disturb her.<p>

_I've had my cry. Today is a new day…_

She cringed a little, feeling a dull ache between her legs as she stood up. Even if nobody else was there to indulge in the awkward feeling that swept over her, it certainly felt like everything around her was laughing.

_Not thinking about this. Moving on._

After sneaking into the bathroom and brushing out any left over vomit taste, the first thing to do was strip the bed. She took off all the sheets and took them to the laundry room, cool early morning air biting her skin on the way. When the washing machine started up, she realized she hadn't filled out the captain's log the day before, so she made the trek up to the navigation room and did the best she could with the coordinates. Her stomach gurgled loudly, and she sighed.

_It's probably best if I get something to eat before Sanji-kun wakes up. I still don't know what to say to him._

Putting her things away and letting her mind mull over possible ways of breaking the news to him without somebody losing their life, she made her way slowly back down the ladder and to the kitchen.

**Chop.**

Nami was startled as she opened the kitchen door, the loud sound of a knife on a cutting board breaking her out of her trance. Her eyes fell on what looked to be Sanji. He was kneeling behind the kitchen counter and systematically using one hand to reach into a large bowl and pull out various ingredients for miso soup. The other hand expertly chopped them into pieces. He dropped the finished piece of tofu in another bowl on the other side of him. She smiled sadly when she took a closer look at his face.

Six or seven cigarettes, all of them lit, lined his snot encrusted lips. Blood shot eyes stared at nothing in particular, and she could swear he had ripped out some of his own hair. A bald patch near the nape of his neck was bleeding at the roots. And though it was a little out of character for him to drink while in the kitchen, she was going to guess the empty wine bottle was not a result of one of his recipes.

_He knows._

**Chop.**

"Sanji-kun," she said gently, sliding over to the counter so she was right across from him. He didn't look up. Just continued to cut a leek.

**Chop.**

"Sanji-kun, please look at me," she said with quiet seriousness, leaning forward on her elbows.

"Onions," he replied shrilly. Her eyes widened. He sounded like at any moment he might bust out in tears again.

"I…chopped onions earlier," his voice cracked in a pathetic crescendo, new tears rolling down his face. She was torn between crying with him and laughing.

**Chop.**

"Sanji-kun, there's no reason to cry," she coaxed, coming around to kneel next to him. He removed four of the cigarettes and placed them on a plate, turning to her with those dead eyes. The remaining two smokes drooped in defeat.

"I'm torn, Nami-san," he blubbered, some of the rage he had kept bottled up inside surfacing in his voice. She rubbed his back and wiped his nose with a napkin.

"I wanted to kill him. I was going to kill him. I still want to kill him," he admitted, setting the knife down. "In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to kill him."

She smiled knowingly and waited for him to finish.

"But ultimately," he gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, "this…this is my fault. I…" He brought a shaky hand up to try to cover his eyes. "I didn't take care of you."

"This is not your fault," she said softly, trying to give him a smile. "We can discuss this later, right? With everyone else. It's not a big deal. We will continue on with our lives."

"That idiot doesn't even know, does he," Sanji sniveled, choking on his own saliva. "This is exactly what I didn't want to happen. Nami-san would NEVER throw herself at anyone like that if she could help it."

Nami blushed a little and squeezed her eyes shut. Apparently she'd put on a show. No wonder everyone was acting like she was crazy.

"No, Luffy doesn't understand," she confirmed, placing a hand on Sanji's blonde head. "Which is why I'd appreciate it if you try your best to keep it civilized, ok?"

"Nami-san is probably in even more pain than I," Sanji moaned, letting her pull him into a warm hug. "The last thing I want is to be the cause of even more of her suffering." He sobbed into her shirt, a slight nosebleed leaving a stain near her breast.

_At least he's still himself._

She rolled her eyes and smiled, proud that she'd avoided a catastrophe. At least for now.

"Poor Nami-san…subjected to such things with our shitty captain…I shall never forgive myself…"

Her eyes softened and she leaned her chin on top of his head.

_It sounds like I'm the one that did all the subjecting…_

* * *

><p>"Ok," Chopper said, eyes burning with determination. "First lesson on human mating behaviors."<p>

"LET ME GOOOO~" Luffy howled, clinging to the door frame for dear life. Usopp and Franky pulled at his legs until veins were visible in their faces.

"YOU CAN EAT LATER," Zoro bellowed, lifting his leg and crushing his captain's fingers. Luffy finally let go, crying out in pain and falling back into the arms of his sniper and ship wright. They both took firm grips on his struggling body and took first row seats in front of Chopper's visuals.

"…Are we ready now," the reindeer asked monotonously. Zoro sat cross legged next to Usopp and held Luffy's face in such a way that he couldn't possibly miss what was about to be explained.

"Brook, first visual," Chopper said cheerfully, taking a stick and pointing at it. Brook removed the plain white board so the first drawing was revealed.

"Uh…what…is _that_?" Zoro asked awkwardly when Chopper took a pause to let everyone study it.

"This is Nami," Chopper explained, pointing at a pink, orange and green scribble.

"…It looks like a flower," Usopp commented, tilting his head.

"Yes! Exactly!" Chopper said excitedly. "Nami is the flower."

"Then…is that Luffy?" Zoro asked cautiously, pointing at the yellow and black blob with a derpy smile.

"Yes. Luffy is the bee," Chopper said, sweeping a hoof over his art work with a pride.

"Why am I a bee?" Luffy asked, speaking through puckered lips with Zoro's hands on either cheek.

"Because you, as a male," Chopper explained professionally, "fertilize the flower. The female."

"'Scuse me," Usopp said, a serious look on his face and one hand raised, "that's wrong. You drew the flower as the type that fertilizes itself. See the stymus-"

"Is this necessary?" Zoro interjected, glaring at his recently plant nerdified friend. "We know you're all botany savvy now and shit, but I'd like to eat today as well." Luffy stretched his tongue and licked his first mate's hand, laughing hysterically at his ingenious move. He received a punch to the head.

"No, wait, Long Nose has a point," Franky mused, raising an eyebrow. "I actually think it'd be more accurate if the bee was Nami-nee. Since she jumped him and all."

"Actually, Chopper-san," Brook said, pointing at the picture, "shouldn't both of them be either flower's or bee's? To make other bee's, the bee must procreate with another bee."

"Yeah," Usopp said, grinning and trying to suppress a laugh, "A bee and a flower? I mean that's…(giggle)…that's like…BEE-STIALITY."

"STOP MAKING FUN OF MY DRAWINGS."

Everyone minus Zoro and Chopper laughed loudly. Including Luffy. Although he didn't really know why he was laughing.

* * *

><p>"They're trying to explain it to him," Robin said, coming out of her technique and looking at Nami. The freshly showered red head sat on her newly made bed, staring at the pairs of underwear she hadn't picked up yet.<p>

"And?" she asked.

Robin shook her head. "Don't get your hopes up."

* * *

><p>"I don't understand why I gotta listen to this. I'm not a bee," Luffy whined, kicking at Franky's face.<p>

"Chopper, I appreciate your effort, but this idiot isn't gonna get it unless we spell it out for him. Right here, right now, Luffy's gonna know what it means to be a man," Zoro said, standing up and lifting Luffy up with him.

"Eh? Man? I'm a man. I've always been a man," Luffy stated, furrowing his brows. Zoro poked his chest and looked him in the eye.

"Luffy, I need you to give me 'yes' or 'no' answers to what I'm about to ask you," the swordsman said, tone insinuating that what he was about to ask would be life changing. Usopp and Franky watched, lips parted and eyes wide in respectful reverence. Chopper pouted and clutched his drawing to his chest.

"Did you take_ that_," Zoro pointed at Luffy's pants, "and put it in Nami."

Luffy blinked, looked at what Zoro was pointing at and nodded. "Ignition switch. Nami said-"

"I. Don't. Need. To. Know," Zoro growled, squeezing his eyes shut. He was already uncomfortable with this. But it was necessary.

"What you did, the act of putting_ that_ inside a girl…that's called 'sex'," he ground out, as much testosterone as he could muster in that one sentence.

Luffy blinked again. "It has a name?"

"Yes," his green haired friend confirmed, "it has a name. And that…is what it is…"

Chopper could see Zoro was struggling, so he decided to offer some help. "It's how humans make babies, Luffy."

"Babies," Luffy murmured to himself, frowning deeply. "You…make them?"

"Yeah, you do," Usopp said, suddenly getting a sense of foreboding.

"Yep. That's how you make them…" Franky followed up, eyes scanning the floor absent-mindedly.

Brook remained stoic next to Chopper.

Zoro's eyes widened and he whipped his head back to Luffy.

"Next question. You said you felt…'energized' afterwards…"

"Uh-huh. It feels good." He grinned widely. Zoro slapped him.

"Unnecessary input will be ignored," he growled. "I'm gonna cut to the chase: was _that_ still inside Nami when you-"

"Are you shit heads eating or what," Sanji growled, kicking the door in and glaring threateningly at all of them.

The entire room was drained of color.

"Sanji," Usopp trilled, eyes shrinking to pinpoints.

Zoro dropped Luffy like a sack of bricks. Chopper squeaked in fright, scooting over so he was half hidden by Franky's arm.

"Save it," the cook seethed, taking out one of the newer cigarettes added to his collection and letting smoke escape his mouth. "If you don't eat now you get nothing for lunch."

Luffy whooped and scrambled up to get to the door first. Sanji grabbed him by his shirt collar and clenched tightly as he passed.

"You stay. Everyone else, scram."

Nobody argued. They could all pretty much guess what this was about. Luffy stared at all of them like they had betrayed him, shutting the door as they walked out.

"I'm really trying, Luffy," Sanji muttered fiercely, lifting him up so they were eye level with each other. Luffy cocked his head innocently.

"Hm? Trying what?"

Sanji stared at him for another long moment, narrowing his eyes at the marks on his neck. His face contorted in agony and he tossed his captain to the floor.

"Apologize to Nami-san. Then come eat." Luffy frowned at his strained voice and the loud string of shit's and fuck's that faded from outside the slammed door.

Robin's clone appeared in the door way when Luffy lifted himself back up to his feet.

"Nami-san is in the storage room, Senchou," she said, smiling warmly. Luffy gave her a half pleading look.

"Robin…did I…do something wrong?"

"Your intentions were pure," she assured him with a nod of the head. "I suppose the 'something' you did was more…'big' than 'wrong'."

"Big," Luffy murmured to himself. He lifted his eyes and opened his mouth to ask her what she meant, but the clone was gone.

_Nami…_

* * *

><p>"You're the only one's who truly understand me," Nami cooed, clutching at the gigantic sack of treasure to her left. She let her head rest against the wall and patted the sack to her right, sighing contentedly.<p>

Across from where she sat in this cramped compartment was the wine. Robin had told her where she could find it, but after staring at it for the last half hour, she hadn't had any mind blowing revelations about the day before. She still remembered nothing. So she'd resorted back to her comfort zone.

"I love you, and you, and _especially_ you," she kissed the individual pieces of gold, setting them out in proper categories: coins in one pile, jewels in another, and anonymous gold items in another. The necklaces she wrapped around her neck, pretending she was a queen.

"Oh, Sanji-kun I couldn't POSSIBLY eat another cinnamon roll," she drawled in a snooty voice, pointing her sock covered feet and flaying her ring encrusted hands like an uptight aristocrat. "Usopp, make me a float so that I may bless the commoners with my presence…"

"Nami?" She heard Luffy's voice from behind the door and groaned unenthusiastically.

_I am the mature one. I am the mature one. I am the mature one._

"Come in," she called, fidgeting with a gold tiara in her hands.

Luffy was shrouded in shadow as he walked over to her, neither of them bothering to turn on the light. She watched him as he sat down cross legged, knee to knee with her.

"What's up," she asked casually, pretending to be fully occupied with the tiara.

"Nami, did we have sex?"

The tiara fell from her hands and one half of her face started to twitch. What was left of her sensory nervous system sent blood rushing to her cheeks. She dared to look him in the eye. His intensity made her reel internally.

"Um…yeah. We…we did."

She watched him pick up the tiara for her. He looked at it, then proceeded to place it on her head. Some hair from her bangs got stuck in the brush back, making them stick up ridiculously. When he let go the crown fell to cover her eyes. His giggle faded when she silently removed it from her face.

"So…are you gonna have a baby now?"

_Leave it to those idiots. Well, at least he's got the gist of it…_

"No," she laughed softly. "No, I don't think so. I just finished my period a week ago. Too early."

His head was practically upside down it was so tilted.

"Er…never mind," she muttered, waving a jeweled hand at him.

There was a long pause where neither of them said anything. He rocked back and forth on his butt, glancing at her from time to time.

"Nami, is sex…'big'?"

She regarded him through her scraggly bangs, blinking so her lashes became entangled in them. Surprisingly, she understood what he was asking. Kind of.

"Only to those who make it out to be that way," she said indifferently. He nodded like he understood. She knew he didn't.

"Does…everyone think it's big? Is that why they're mad at me?"

"Nobody's mad at you," she said gently, poking his nose playfully. He scrunched it up cutely and crossed his eyes. She laughed. "Well, except maybe Sanji-kun. But it's only because he does, as you say, look at sex as something big," she explained. "It's usually done with someone you love very much."

As soon as the last part left her mouth she regretted it. She stood up to avoid his confused look, reaching around to tie her hair up.

"Please bring that barrel out to the deck," she said quickly, shoving all her jewels and things into their respective sacks and turning to the door.

"Nami, our sex-"

She fingered the door handle and felt herself tense up.

"Nothing," she replied simply, meeting his gaze with emotionless eyes. "It means nothing. So we can go back to normal."

He bobbed his hatless head and stood up.

"I'm sorry, Na-"

"Please don't," she whispered, half out the door. "Please, for the love of God. Not you. Not from you."

Luffy watched her leave, even more confused than when he had come.

_Sanji says apologize…Nami says don't…_

One thing was for sure, though. He furrowed his brow and lugged the barrel out of the room.

_I don't like sex._


	4. Another Pervert

"So people wanted you so badly they were willing to chase us around to get you," Nami said sweetly, pressing a cheek to the worn barrel wood. "How _mysterious_…"

"That's not why it's mysterious," Usopp, Franky and Zoro said at the same time, slapping the air.

"Ignore these idiot's," she whispered, latching onto the barrel tighter. "They don't have the capability to appreciate you like I can." She planted a big, wet kiss on it and ignored the splinter that lodged itself in her lower lip.

"Can we drink it?" Luffy asked, eyes bright.

"SCREW THAT," Nami bellowed, slapping him silly. "THANKS TO YOU, WE ONLY HAVE ONE INSTEAD OF TWO."

"You got to drink some," Zoro pointed out. She burned a hole in his head with her eyes and he backed off.

"This barrel is what you all owe me," Nami said matter-of-factly, jabbing a thumb at herself. "You were all too irresponsible and left me with this idiot while I was drunk."

Sanji moved to kiss the hand she flung in his direction but she retracted it and he nearly fell on his face.

"I don't really mind," Franky said, scratching his neck, "but I would kind of like to know why so many people wanted it."

"Who cares? As long as it goes to the highest bidder, you can all consider yourselves forgiven. I'm easily traumatized, ya know."

"Right," Zoro said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Franky-san, do you still have the manual we received?" Robin looked up at him and smiled. "I'm also kind of curious."

Nami frowned. "Manual?"

"Some old guy in the market was selling weird occult stuff," Usopp explained. "He recognized the barrel almost immediately and handed over some book."

Nami gasped, beri signs whirling like slot machines over her pupils. "If it's that famous, and it has an entire manual…perhaps a past history…if it's made on a certain island…if it's organic," everyone stared at her as she mumbled to herself, doing impossible math equations in her head and counting on her fingers, "taking into account the current economy and the value of a certain year…"

"Nami-san is so glorious when she's scheming," Sanji sighed, now down to four cigarettes in his mouth.

"Nami-nee, speak so we can understand, please," Franky said, grinning knowingly. Nami blinked and stretched out her hand.

"Gimme that manual."

"I asked first," Robin said, grinning and taking the book from the compartment that popped out of Franky's abs. She pushed it back in place and patted it for good measure. Nami squinted at her until her eyes were slits.

"Suck up."

Robin chuckled when Franky blushed. Her laugh faded, however, when she opened the book. She frowned.

"I don't recognize this language."

"Eh?" Nami paled, her dreams fading away. "Aren't there like, numbers or something that might suggest past worth?"

"No. I've never seen any language like this before," the archaeologist said, scanning the pages with fascinated eyes.

Luffy's head popped up next to her and he glanced down at what she apparently couldn't read. He blinked.

"You can't read that?"

Robin turned to him.

"No. Can you?" She moved the book so he could see. He nodded and took it from her.

"Yeah. Some guy living in the sun wanted to get his friend a present for his birthday and gave him his own island, I think," Luffy said, squinting at the page and scratching his head. "Some guy named 'thou'."

Robin's eyes widened and she looked incredulously at the rest of the crew.

"I…I swear, I've never seen this language before…"

"Lemme see," Nami snapped, snatching the book out of Luffy's hands. She glared at the worn pages and frowned.

"Robin, you can't read this? This sounds like something right up your alley. 'And to you, thy charge shall keep thee in constant'-" Nami stopped reading out loud and squinted at the page. Franky leaned over her shoulder and shrugged at Robin, confirming she wasn't insane and that he couldn't read it either.

"Chi…mati…" Nami murmured.

"Who?" Usopp asked.

"Me," came a gruff voice.

Everyone whirled around to see who had just spoken.

"GAH," Chopper cried out, pointing and hiding behind Zoro's leg, "IT'S THE OLD GUY."

"You…" Zoro muttered, drawing a sword and taking a defensive stance.

"Who the hell are you?" Sanji stepped in front of the women and glared suspiciously at the man sitting comfortably against the wall.

"It _is_ him," Usopp said, eyes widening.

"Sorry to scare you like that. I guess I didn't expect to see you kids ever again." He laughed to himself and ran a hand over his long white beard. "I usually don't deal with pirates, and I figured if I warned you first there wouldn't be an issue."

"What the hell are you talking about? How long have you been on the ship?" Zoro questioned, trying to subtly shake Chopper off of his leg.

"Just got here," the old guy cackled, pointing at Luffy and Nami. "So your friends were the ones dumb enough to drink it."

"EXCUSE ME?" Nami roared, Robin's arms keeping her from going over to choke him.

"Every once in a while this happens, but it doesn't take too long to move on. Pirate's aren't too hard to please," the man said, smiling. His snaggle tooth peeked out from his lower lip. "Normally they're smart enough to just sell it to someone else and take the money."

"Chimati," Robin said cautiously. The old man turned to her. "Is that your name?"

Sanji looked back at her curiously. "Robin-chan…"

Chimati grinned slyly. "Have you heard of me?"

"God of crossroads," she said, quietly. "Affiliated with destiny. Reproduction."

The old man whistled. "Somebody's done their homework."

"God…" Nami muttered, eyes widening. Luffy frowned.

"What's this shit about a God," Zoro bellowed, still not putting his sword away.

"I won't bother using words with you, Roronoa," Chimati said, reaching out and grabbing a bottle out of thin air. Zoro tensed.

"How the fuck do you know my name?"

"Everybody knows your name. You're famous aren't you?"

"Cut the crap. What are you doing here?" Sanji seethed, stepping forward. "We already left the island. You're at our mercy right now, if you couldn't tell."

"Are you suggesting you'd do horrible things to a decrepit old man?" Chimati leaned his head back and drank, ignoring the look he was getting from the cook.

"Wait a minute," Nami said shakily, moving past Sanji and looking at the old man with reverence. "Are…are you really a God?"

He stared at Nami. "For you, I will be anything you want."

"ANOTHER PERVERT," Usopp, Zoro and Chopper slapped the air, baring their teeth. Nami fell on her face.

"OH GREAT ONE," she sobbed, "PLEASE IGNORE THE IMPERTINENCE OF MY IDIOT CREW AND BESTOW UPON US YOUR WISDOM."

"THAT IS NOT A GOD," Zoro roared, pointing at a beaming Chimati with his sword.

"HOW DARE YOU MAKE A PASS AT OUR ADORABLE NAVIGATOR YOU INSUFFERABLE OLD COOT," Sanji exploded, Robin's hands working overtime to keep him back.

"Hey, jii-chan," Luffy said, eyes glittering, "can you do that thing where you make stuff appear out of nowhere again?"

Chimati grinned and grabbed another bottle, setting it next to the one he already had. "You mean like that?"

"UWAAAAAH! A MAGICIAN!" He gushed, tongue hanging out. "JOIN MY CRE-"

"HE'S NOT IN THE GODDAMN CREW," Sanji, Zoro, Usopp and Franky bashed him in the face.

"Please explain yourself," Robin said, stepping forward, eyes gleaming. "I'm not partial to God's myself, but I've studied enough mythology to have an interest."

"Well thank goodness ONE of you is reasonable," Chimati muttered, scratching at his ear.

"Kami-sama~" Nami trilled sweetly, sidling over to him with her hands folded under her chin. "You wouldn't happen to know how much this wine is worth, would you?"

She was startled by the gaze she received. Despite his old age, his eyes were frighteningly bright. The gray reminded her of the dark cumulonimbus clouds she would often maneuver the ship through, a torrent of knowledge and cunning making her question her own mortal intellect.

"Cat Thief Nami," he started slowly. "This will be interesting to say the least."

"This book," Robin inquired, holding up the manual, "is coded so only those that drink this can read it, right?"

"Correct. Though 'coded' isn't exactly the word I would use. It's simply my native language." He shrugged. "It's just easier for me that way. Human's are notorious for causing stupid mischief. A book they can't read doesn't interest them."

"You gave us this book though," Robin said.

"Yes, but now that the wine has been consumed, I'm obliged to leave it with you," he replied. "When you're through with your journey, I take it back and find a new victim."

"Journey? Victim?" Nami forgot about money and listened intently to what he was saying. He pointed at her with a bony finger.

"Your journey to find happiness," he said simply, smiling at the look she gave him. "And I can already tell that, for you, being victimized is very well what this will turn out to be like."

"Happiness…" Zoro scoffed. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Is Nami going on an adventure?" Luffy asked, frowning a little through his puffy face.

"I made a bet with my friend," Chimati mused, twirling his beard absentmindedly. He glanced at Robin. "Perhaps you've heard of him. Hotei has more followers than I do."

"God of happiness," Robin said smoothly. "You two together sounds like quite the lethal duo."

The old man burst out laughing. "You could say that. Well, he actually has his own island. Amaterasu made him a guardian back in the day, and so he resides here on Earth."

"Was it his birthday when he got the island?" Luffy asked, raising his hand. Everyone stared at him. Chimati smiled.

"Ya know, it might've been. But that's not the point I'm getting at. The fruit grows pretty well for him because of the climate and he makes his own wine. We found that the wine has a fascinating effect on humans."

"Does it make them incredibly horny?" Zoro asked bluntly. Sanji burned his arm with a cigarette and they turned to rolling around on the grass, punching each other.

"In most cases that's what it's used for," Chimati said. "Women who cannot bear children are willing to do almost anything if they can be guaranteed a child."

At this, there was an eerie silence that swept across the deck.

"An aphrodisiac…" Robin murmured, paling a little.

"Not quite," Chimati chuckled. "Only for those who wish it to be so."

"I…don't understand," Robin said, tilting her head curiously. Nami was feeling nauseous.

"I am, as you have said, the God of crossroads," he said in a low voice. "God's don't particularly enjoy it when work goes unfinished, unnoticed, or just plain ignored." At this he glanced pointedly at Nami, though nobody else noticed.

"The wine will give you the means to understand for yourself what you need to achieve happiness," Chimati finished, closing his eyes and spreading his arms out like he was finishing a performance. "Some people already know pretty well what they need and my work is done quickly. Others, though…"

"That's some deep stuff," Usopp said, bobbing his head in thought. "You're…really a God then, eh?"

"This is bullshit," Zoro growled, his fight with Sanji having been forgotten. "That doesn't help us one bit. If achieving happiness is what we're talking about, sounds like all Nami wants is-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there," Sanji muttered fiercely, wrenching Zoro over to face him by the collar of his robe. He gestured with his head at Nami and Zoro's eyes widened.

Nami sat in the grass, eyes glassy and focused on nothing in particular. Chimati's eyes softened, his voice reaching out to her as if nobody else were there.

"Your captain is an amazing man," he said from deep in his chest, "he already has everything he feels he needs to be happy."

Nami's face contorted in anticipation of what he was getting at.

"You have yet to acknowledge your happiness," he continued in a sagely voice, "New dreams, emotions that are unique. Paths can be twisted over time, so that even if they've met already, they can meet again at a new place."

"I don't understand," Nami quivered, tears threatening to fall, "Why are you saying these things to me…"

"Oi."

Nami turned to glance at Luffy, who now stood behind her with his face shadowed by the brim of his hat.

"Leave Nami alone."

Chimati grinned and shrugged.

"It's enough for now. I'll be seeing all of you again soon."

And with that, he was gone. Like he had never been there.

"What…in the hell was that," Zoro said, pure confusion reflected in his face.

"Nami and Luffy drank cursed wine," Usopp groaned. "Just what we need."

Franky whistled and shook his head. "Not gonna lie. He lost me somewhere along the way. I'm just glad all of you saw him too. I ain't crazy yet."

"Most intriguing," Robin muttered, a hand coming up to cover her mouth. She glanced over at Luffy and Nami.

Luffy went to offer a hand to help her up but was shoved out of the way by Sanji, who made a fuss of getting her something to eat and drink. Nami glanced back at him as she was ushered away and received a wide grin of reassurance.

"Dammit, Chopper," Zoro picked up Chopper, who had passed out, and trudged back to the boys room to let him sleep.

"What do you think of all this," Franky asked Robin, frowning at the barrel that was still in front of them.

"It's a lot to process for sure," Robin mused, sighing heavily. "I'm still wondering about what kind of connection all of this has to Navigator-san and Senchou…"

"I wonder what Nami-nee needs to be happy," Franky muttered, scratching at his neck.

Robin frowned and nodded. "Indeed…"

"Usopp-san, I need a plunger-" Brook peeked out from the hatch to the navigation room and saw that only a couple people were on the deck. He noticed the solemn mood everyone was in and cleared his throat.

"Did I miss something? The atmosphere is nearly as dead as I am. YOHOHOHOHO~"

* * *

><p>Nami holed herself up in the navigation room for the rest of the day, threatening to charge anyone who disturbed her before dinner was ready. The outline of the last island was, of course, a bit fuzzy because she hadn't explored it herself, but Robin had been kind enough to ask how large it was. What better way to ignore the issues in her personal life than through forced concentration.<p>

_W 23k…L 29k…_

She scratched at the parchment, careful to make the lines proportionate to each other.

_This area is elevated-_

And there it was. The inevitable ink spill.

She cursed out loud and pushed her chair back from the desk, her new shorts ruined (and the map was a disappointing loss, too). Letting out a general cry of frustration, she crumbled the ruined paper up and threw it at the window. It left a smear since the ink hadn't dried.

_I can't catch a break, can I…_

"Navigator-san?"

Nami glowered at the ink smear on the window, then at the hatch, wondering at the brilliant timing things often had.

"Come in," she said begrudgingly, grabbing some tissues and rubbing at the black stain on her thigh. Robin climbed up and chuckled lightly at her struggle.

"I suppose that's one way to make a fashion statement."

"I don't need your commentary," Nami grumbled, spitting on the tissue and rubbing furiously at the jean fabric. "I told you guys not to bother me."

"I just want to talk," Robin said, sitting on the floor and using one of her arms to clean up the ink on the desk.

"That's why I told you guys to leave me alone," she sighed, tossing the tissue in the waste basket. "I don't want to talk."

"I think you should, though. It's obviously bothering you. And we're not exactly dealing with a physical obstacle here."

"So you think he's a God?"

"I can't think of a reason he would have to lie to us. And if what he says is true, you should try to think of what he might want from you."

"Want from me?" Nami said confusedly, sitting across from Robin and leaning on one of the desk legs. "What would he want from me?"

"God's, at least in the tales I've read, desire knowledge through entertainment," Robin said, giving her a teasing smile.

"Great. So I'm a tool in some metaphysical being's need to broaden his already incomprehensible world view."

"Are you not happy, Nami-chan?" Robin asked gently.

"Of course I'm happy. I don't need some stupid wine to come along and ruin things for me. There is nothing I would change about the way things are."

"I think you should read the manual just the same," Robin suggested. "I'd actually like it if you read some of it to me."

"Nerd," Nami accused, grinning.

"I'm not the one covered in ink," Robin retorted slyly.

"Touche."

There was a comfortable silence between them, both reflecting a little on how in one day things had gotten so turned around.

"Nami-chan," Robin started slowly, "do you think things would have gone differently if Senchou hadn't also-"

Nami had seen this coming and buried her face in her knees. "I think we should stop thinking about this."

"It might help you understand why this is happening if you talk about it."

"Then can I tell you a secret?" Nami said, looking up. "You promise not to tell anyone?"

Robin smiled. "My lips are sealed."

Nami pushed back her bangs. "That wasn't my first time."

Robin maintained her emotionlessness and nodded.

"I think…part of me, might have wanted a controlled experience," Nami continued, "And because Luffy would pretty much do anything I told him…"

"Then why can't you remember anything? Why, if your wish was fulfilled, did Chimati-sama appear before you?"

Nami looked at the spot on the window and shrugged.

"Navigator-san, I think you're doing your best to keep things the way they are," Robin reasoned. "And I think that's why you're unhappy."

"I'm starving," Nami said flatly, getting up from the floor. "I bet Sanji's nearly finished with dinner."

Robin watched her climb down the hatch and shut it behind her. She smiled sadly and went over to wipe the ink from the window.

_Perhaps change is what we could all use a little more of._


	5. Stain

"New bounties," Porthos called to everyone else as he passed through the large entry way of the Drake Pirate's kitchen, taking long stride's over the floor until he reached his captain.

"Been waitin' for these for a while," the ship's gunman cackled, reaching out to grab some random ones from the stack in his friend's hands. "Why are there so many this time? I thought you were just getting ours?"

"Three words, Jameson: Straw. Hat. Crew."

"Did'jya get the navigator's?" Raul inquired loudly from across the table. "She's HOT."

"Another poster to add to your Unatainable Female's collection above your bed?" teased Aramis, coming in after Porthos.

Drake looked up from his breakfast and thanked his first mate, who handed over the rest of the posters the crew hadn't taken on his way over. He flipped through and stopped at Luffy's, raising an eyebrow and holding it up for all to see.

"620,000,000," he said quietly, taking a sip from his coffee mug. Everyone gaped in shock.

"Son of a bitch," Aramis mused, munching on some toast. "I'd heard he was back, but what a way to set off…"

"He didn't exactly keep quiet on Fishman Island," Porthos pointed out, stealing his friend's other piece of toast and wriggling his mustache. "200,000,000 more is surprising, nonetheless."

Drake said nothing, but continued to look through the other poster's.

"If they keep showing up in the paper and causin' trouble, they're bound to get even higher bounties. Roronoa finally kissed the 200 mark…"

"Somebody do the math for me. I'm too lazy to add up their crew's total worth…"

Drake stopped at Nami's poster and studied it solemnly for a minute. 60,000,000.

"Cute isn't she," Aramis said, leaning over Drake's shoulder and smirking. "Word is she's also very useful. An excellent navigator."

"We've been looking to replace Raul anyway," Jameson laughed. "Sick o' lookin' at his ugly mug…"

"I wouldn't mind working alongside that," Raul said, hands raised in admittance.

Drake smiled a little and set her poster aside, standing up to take his plate back to their cook. Suddenly, he turned back and in his deep voice asked, "They were from East Blue, correct?"

Aramis raised his eyebrows and twisted his mustache. "I believe so. Why?"

Drake shook his head and started walking away again.

"No particular reason."

* * *

><p>It was too early, wasn't it?<p>

_I don't…understand…_

Nami stared down at the rusty red spot in her panties, not really sure what she was supposed to be feeling.

It wasn't really relief, which was surprising. Just…

She made use of a tampon in the cabinet and washed her hands, staring at herself in the mirror.

_Everyone can breathe now._

She wasn't stupid. How many times had she caught Robin following her with her eyes as she walked to the bathroom? How many times had Chopper asked if she felt funny?

Food tasted the same. Air smelled the same. She was the same person. And there was now confirmation that there was nobody inside of her to potentially ruin that.

There was a tenderness in her breasts, but that was explained now. If her period was here early, that was just all the better.

_Happy ending._

Robin was lounging on the couch when Nami walked back into the room, reading something new. She skipped meeting her blue eyes when they looked up at her and she flopped on her bed.

"Cook-san brought you some tea sandwiches," Robin said quietly, turning a page.

"Not hungry," Nami replied softly.

Robin looked up, frowning a little. "Are you feeling-"

"Thirsty. I want some lemonade." Nami curled up in a fetal position and sighed, staring at the drawer where she kept the Manual.

"I'm sure Cook-san would be willing to bring you some." The skritch of paper as the page turned…

"Maybe later," the red head sighed again, reaching out toward the vanity. From here, it looked like she could pinch the picture frames and various cosmetics on it.

The familiar silences between herself and Robin had a habit of turning into loaded conversations, so she thought it might be best to pretend to fall asleep…

"Chopper-kun is worried about you. I think, even if it's just to ease his nerves, you should let him examine you."

"He doesn't need to worry anymore," came her controlled reply. "My period came. You guys can move on."

Nami didn't look up to see Robin's reaction. It didn't really matter. The sudden urge to talk to Luffy popped up, though. Dwelling on why was pointless, so she got up and walked out before she could stop herself.

In the almost two weeks since the incident, she had probably hurt his feelings more than she wanted to admit. Every chance she could, she would bury herself in "research" or whatever else she could think of to distract herself from talking to him. And he noticed, just like she knew he would. He was just a little too dumb to figure out how to 'get her to like him again'. Or that was how Robin said he put it. Most of the time she'd just catch him staring at her.

The last thing he needed was a warped view on the relationship between a man and a woman. He was already pretty asexual aside from their…whatever. If he could gain any shred of happiness from being with a girl, then, she would make sure he understood.

**Dokin.**

_He's already happy. He doesn't need anything else._

It hurt. Staring at him as he watched fish from the opening to the aquarium, it was hard to think about.

He glanced at her and smiled when she crossed to him, a bit of insecurity concealed behind it. It disappeared when she produced the tea sandwiches from behind her back.

"Just eat these and let me talk," she said, sitting knee to knee with him like they had in the storage room. He tilted the plate and every single sandwich disappeared into his black hole of a mouth. He stared at her intently with huge cheeks, signaling he was ready to listen. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"Look, alright? I…I didn't quite explain things the way I should've when I said that sex isn't big, Luffy. It can be big depending on...the way it happens..."

**Dokin.**

"...You can't go around doing it with everyone."

He seemed to still be paying attention so she went on, sweeping her hair over her shoulder.

"You might see a girl someday that you think…um…" she struggled to put it in Luffy thoughts, "Well, a girl you really think is…special. Or pretty. Or…hell, I don't know. You may just feel like having sex with her. WHICH YOU WON'T," she screamed suddenly, pinching his nose, "BECAUSE THAT'S RUDE."

He nodded confusedly, finally swallowing the food and whining for her to let go of him.

"I don't know how they explained it to you…" she gestured to Zoro who was sleeping, Chopper who was…also sleeping…Usopp…also sleeping…

"Know what, forget what they said. They're idiots," she finally said bluntly, looking him in the eye. "I'm telling you, ESPECIALLY for your case, you just keep thinking sex is big. And then when you…find a girl…"

**Dokin.**

"You won't have any regrets."

He blinked and looked away at the water sloshing near the aquarium opening. She wondered if she had gone too deep…

"I won't do it," he said quietly. She raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean 'you won't do it'? Luffy, chances are you'll-"

"I don't like it. Everyone gets mad. You don't talk to me...I don't wanna."

"You don't have to do it with me, idiot," she growled. "Don't say something so arrogant when you're only twenty."

"You're only twenty-one," he challenged, narrowing his eyes. "You're not the boss of me."

"OH?" she said loudly, sneering and moving so she was inches from his face. He tried not to look scared.

"The difference between you and me is that I'll do it with whoever I want," she said, poking him in the chest. "You need to move on. It's not like anything happened. You don't even smile anymore."

He pushed her hand away and frowned. "Yeah, well, neither do you."

**Dokin.**

"I will when you do, dork," she huffed, pulling at the edges of his lips and making him whine in protest.

"That old guy said you aren't happy, Nami," he said seriously once she had stood up and finished torturing him.

"Who could be happy with such a miserable captain? That's why I came here to talk to you."

He jumped up and followed behind her. "If I've done something wrong-"

She turned around and pushed a hand to his mouth, her eyes a bit softer than before.

"You've done nothing wrong," she said firmly. "You are my captain. My happiness is…"

**Dokin.**

_It is the same thing as what yours is._

"…my happiness is being your navigator," she finished quietly.

He stared at her for a minute, then cracked a small smile.

"Then, will you come with me to get some food? Usopp's asleep and I don't like going alone because Sanji yells at me."

"I just gave you sandwiches you greedy little bastard," she scolded, walking with him anyway. Lemonade sounded good...

"I'm still hungry. I can't get full off girl food…"

"SANDWICHES AREN'T GENDER SPECIFIED."

They ran past her trees, heading for the stairs. She made a mental note to water them later, then grinned when Luffy threw himself over the railing and yelled for her to hurry up.

* * *

><p><em>It wasn't really noticeable at first, but after awhile it became impossible to ignore.<em>

_"Navigator-san," Robin said quietly, glancing up from the shirt she was looking at, "I don't know if you've noticed, but, everyone seems to be looking at you."_

_Indeed, that was what appeared to be happening._

_This town was fairly large. Three days after her talk with Luffy, they'd landed here and split up to do the shopping. Zoro stayed on board to guard the ship while Franky and Sanji got provisions. Usopp and Chopper decided to help each other with their individual shopping and then go explore with Luffy._

_Nami and Robin went shopping, Nami looking through the racks determined to find some shorts to replace the ones she'd ruined._

_After looking through a few stores though, she'd noticed that everyone they walked past seemed to be looking at them. Or her in particular._

_It was...creepy._

_She followed the gaze of one woman and plowed right into a man, who promptly apologized with a strange look on his face. Nami glanced at Robin as if to confirm she was seeing this too. The raven haired woman was staring out at some people further off, a few of them glancing their way every now and then._

_"I have a bad feeling," she said quietly, furrowing her brows and grabbing Nami's wrist to pull her back the way they'd come. Nami followed after her, noticing the group start moving in their direction._

_"Nami-chan," Nami heard her companion ask as she hurried them both back to the ship, "you said you got your period…"_

_"What does that have to do with anything-"_

_Nami felt herself being yanked away from Robin by her other arm, and then thrown over the shoulder of a huge man. Robin looked panicked, her lips forming words that Nami couldn't hear, her captors taking her further and further away…_

Nami didn't cry out or anything, but when her eyes opened and she recognized the familiar furnishings of her room, the feeling of relief was immense. She turned over shakily to stare at Robin's sleeping figure, trying to calm herself. As she went to turn over though, she felt an all too familiar feeling in her throat. Her eyes widened and she tried to carefully remove herself from the bed, making a split second judgement call on how long she had needed to throw up.

She leaned over the sink by the door and was sick, shaking hands gripping the sides to keep herself steadied. She heard Robin call out quietly through the dark, understandably concerned since Nami wasn't being particularly quiet as she puked her guts out.

_You said you got your period, right?_

_You said you got your period, right?_

_You said you got your period, right?_

Nami glanced at the corner of the room next to her bed, hazy eyes drawn to the apparition staring at her with hard, indiscernibly grim eyes. He mouthed something…

_My work isn't finished…_

Colored dots raced across her vision, Robin's hands on her forehead and neck making her aware of the cold sweat she'd collected over her entire body. She let herself fall, not blacking out until after the pain of hitting her head on a corner of the cabinet and dragging the tea set down with her made Robin cry out in panic.

A nightmare. Had it actually ended, or was all of it…just that.

* * *

><p>"Implantation bleeding," Chopper said quietly, blinking his sleep deprived eyes and walking back over to where Robin was sitting beside Nami.<p>

"It happens when the fertilization occurs in the fallopian tube and a lining had already started forming before. It sheds itself when the embryo implants itself into the uterine wall…"

Robin pushed back her bangs and gave Nami's sleeping figure a soft glance.

"Then…she is pregnant."

Chopper shuffled his feet uncomfortably, but nodded.

Robin nodded in return, pulling her knees in closer to her chest and leaning back against the cot.

"How are we supposed to tell everyone else…they're worried about her."

"We should wait until she awakens," Robin murmured, giving Chopper a small smile. "She herself doesn't even know."

Chopper bobbed his head. "Then, would you like to stay with her tonight or should-"

"I can take over from here, Chopper-kun. Thank you for all of your help." Robin gave him a more reassuring smile and left the room to get her pillow and blanket.

Upon their exit from the room, they were greeted by the tired faces of the rest of the crew. Sanji was crying and whimpering to himself, Usopp had fallen asleep standing and let his head fall against Zoro's shoulder. Zoro stood surprisingly unaffected next to a worried looking Luffy and Franky. Brook waited patiently with them for an explanation.

"It's alright guys," Chopper tried to say cheerfully. "You can go back to bed now. Nami's fine."

"What's wrong with Nami-swan," Sanji wailed softly into a tissue, blowing his nose.

"She's fine," Robin reassured them, stepping towards the stairs and letting her smile disappear once her back was turned to them.

"Oi, Chopper," Luffy said, walking over to him as they all walked back to the room, "Is Nami sick?"

Chopper shook his head. "No, she's…she's not sick. Robin's just going to stay with her tonight to make sure she's okay."

Luffy nodded slowly and gave a worried smile when he looked back at Robin's figure crossing through the kitchen door.

"Do you think she needs to eat more?"

"No, it's nothing like that…"

"Then, what?"

There was a short silence where Chopper tried to think of what any of them were really supposed to be able to do in this kind of situation.

"She's probably going to need us more than anything," the reindeer said quietly, letting Luffy close the door behind him. "That and a rational mind."


	6. This Shit Too Shall Pass

_"We're a family."_

_Mom…_

_"We don't need to be blood to be a family."_

"Navigator-san."

It was vaguely noted that a hand was tilting her chin to help her look up. Fingers snapped to bring her back out of her daze. Noted, but not acknowledged.

Nami leaned over and vomited in the bucket next to the bed, Robin sitting across the room. One of her hands stroked her back soothingly. Chopper waited patiently with a worried expression on his face.

"Easy, Nami. It doesn't just go away. It will be hard for the first few months."

Months.

The dry heaving was more out of defiance. She was finished physically, but her mentality was to purge...everything.

Robin lifted a glass of water to her mouth, but Nami turned and slapped it away. Robin frowned, but said nothing as water pooled around the shattered glass on the floor.

"S-sorry, Chopper. I'll clean it," Nami muttered, staggering up to her feet. Chopper's eyes widened.

"Nami, just settle down, okay? It's not-"

"I'm fine," she ground out, passing through the door and letting the harsh wind of the outside dry the sweat at the nape of her neck.

The thing about a ship, is that there's nowhere to run. You can't run anywhere. In certain situations where running is necessary, one's surroundings look vaguely prison-like.

_Storm…_

She dashed down the stairs, realizing it would've been easier to go through the kitchen, but it didn't matter now.

The clouds were churning, and every second wasted was one second closer to being dragged around by one of the New World's specialties.

"Franky, I need you to-"

Nobody was in the boy's room. She stared and leaned shakily on the door frame.

She checked Franky's work shop. Usopp's work shop. Sprinted back to the kitchen.

Nobody.

"Robin-"

The office was empty.

"Chopper…"

The storm moved in and she found herself alone.

* * *

><p>"She's crying," Robin said softly, squeezing Nami's hand.<p>

After trying to get up and get a broom to clean up the glass, Nami had collapsed again, so Chopper put her on an I.V. drip, thinking she was probably dehydrated. He stood next to Robin's crouched figure and sniffed, crying to himself.

"She's scared," he whimpered. Robin patted his head with her free hand.

"So that only means we have to be strong for her," she whispered.

"I don't," he whispered back, "I don't want her to be sad."

"Nobody does," Robin said. "I think though, that there are things she needs to think about. And we will be here when she's finished."

She smiled sadly, letting the ear she'd placed on the door to the kitchen disappear in a shower of flower petals.

_Senchou, maybe now you can understand a bit._

* * *

><p>Blue smoke wafted lazily up the rafters of the kitchen, the bags under Sanji's eyes looking a little worse every time he breathed a sigh or smoothed a hand through his hair.<p>

Luffy stared at the ashtray between them, expressionless. Sanji glanced at him and tapped the tip of his cigarette into the bowl.

"We've dealt…with a lot of things," he said slowly, looking at his captain carefully. "There will be more things to be dealt with."

Luffy shook his head slightly and blinked.

"I've come to expect a certain kind of behavior from you," the blonde murmured, leaning on his elbows. "Despite everything," he looked Luffy in the eye, "I trust you. I trust your judgement."

"Sanji, what am I supposed to do."

A small, bitter looking smile curled over the cook's lips.

"I just told you I know that you'll do the right thing."

Luffy set his chin on the table and exhaled.

"This is…this is tough shit, Luffy," Sanji laughed ironically, shaking his head. "We can't sugar coat that. But you're not the one I'm worried about."

"What am I supposed to say to Nami," the brunette said quietly.

Sanji poured something amber colored and strong smelling into the small glass next to him. He passed it to Luffy, who just kind of stared at it.

"Tell her what you tell everyone every time shit happens," Sanji said softly. "That you're here, and that you'll stay here until the shit passes."

Luffy swirled the contents of the glass.

"Does this kind of shit ever actually pass?" he asked.

Sanji marveled at his rare moment of perceptiveness.

"Like I said. You'll do what you feel is right. And if you don't," Sanji paused to get a much bigger glass for himself and proceeded to fill it to the brim. "I'll kick your ass so bad you'll have to shit with your dick."

Luffy downed his drink.

* * *

><p>The eye of a storm, usually used as a calming metaphor in books and stories, seemed a little ironic in this particular situation.<p>

There was no calm in Nami's heart.

"You keep running you're just going to exhaust yourself," Chimati pointed out, watching her jogging start to slow. She had searched every part of the ship, and had found no one.

She ignored him, but staggered over to the railing and looked out at the walls of swirling wind on every side. It might have been a magnificent experience if she weren't otherwise convinced all of her nakama had vanished.

"Did you do this?" she said quietly, finally turning her eyes to look at him. He shook his head.

"Nope. Just thought you might want to have a look-see for yourself."

"At what?"

"Your subconscious."

"…Are you retarded? We're on the Sunny."

"Familiar surroundings help to focus," he said, shrugging. "This is where you go to fix things."

Nami just stared at him.

"When you panic, this is where the mind goes to blow off steam and try to sort itself out."

"So…nobody else is here?"

"Wouldn't be very calming otherwise, now would it?"

This was hardly calming. The walls of water, wind and chaos surrounding the ship were enormous; and yet, she could still have a pleasant conversation with her brain's captor. That didn't really seem fair somehow.

"Suppose not. Though most things in life aren't fair," he chuckled.

Perfect. She had forgotten she was dealing with the super-natural.

"You're rational in situations where it's needed," he started, "but this is different, right? You don't know what you're supposed to do."

"Wanna just tell me so we can keep this conversation short?" she growled.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. You're supposed to figure it out on your own. That's why you're in here in the first place."

"Cut me some slack," she said bitterly. "You did kind of, you know, trick me into getting pregnant."

Just uttering the word made her feel nauseous. He watched her turn away.

"I don't have that kind of power," he said, grinning. "Though I suppose your mind isn't capable of comprehending the range of a God's reach."

Nami's eyes widened. "Isn't that the point of this? All this? Whatever it is? You're controlling this, right?"

"To a point. But I didn't make you drink the wine. I actually wasn't sure you would," he said thoughtfully. He pointed at the walls of wind.

"Do you see those?"

Nami frowned. "What?"

"The strands."

Nami squinted. Now that she was looking more closely, she could definitely make out what looked to be strands of fabric whirling within the chaos. She watched with curiosity and slight discontent as one of Chimati's arms billowed out like smoke and grabbed one as it passed by.

He pulled, and as if it were magnetic, the strands nearby attached themselves to the end and followed after it, making a spectacular web that glowed with ethereal light.

"These are every connection you've made, every person you've ever met in your entire life," he mused, holding up the main strand. She stared at it as it danced in his hand.

"Your mind archives everything it takes in, and you forget what's not important eventually, but it's always here. Have you ever," he said a little more pointedly, "had dreams where the faces are unfamiliar?"

She hesitated, then nodded, remembering her dream from the night before.

"The mind…cannot conceive faces on its own," he said slowly. "Every face you dream of, is someone who, at any point in your life whether you remember when that was or not, you have seen before. Passing glances, deep conversations…everything."

"What the hell does that have to do with the current problem," Nami said angrily. "I came here to think didn't I? Well, you're definitely not helping."

He held up the strand more. "See how the web comes off of this one?"

She nodded, trying not to get overly frustrated with how slow this…lesson (?) was going.

"The majority of these strands float freely, not particularly held in relation with each other."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"What does that have to do with-"

"The important ones often make chains, meshing until they bind everything together into a sort of order."

He watched her eyes soften.

"If you leave them, like you're thinking, what kind of impact do you think that would have on their minds?"

He stroked the main strand gently, sounds moving to her ears. She closed her eyes to listen…

_"I got this hat from an important friend…"_

_"Be my navigator!"_

_"I'm sure you have your reasons…though I don't really want to hear them…"_

_"DAMN STRAIGHT!"_

_"YOU ARE MY NAKAMA!"_

"You are important to them," Chimati said quietly. "I can't make you do anything, and it's never certain where a path will lead. Even I do not know…what you will do for certain."

"You're a jerk," she quivered, trying to wipe away her tears and snot. "That's not fair…"

"Life is not fair."

"They have things they want to do," she cried, pressing her hands to her eyes in an attempt to stop all the water from flowing out. "This…this ruins _everything_. Everything is ruined."

" 'Ruined' is a very strong word. Very abused on Earth," he said sarcastically, stroking his beard. "Very few things are ever ruined beyond repair."

She sniffled and looked at him. He looked right back and laughed.

"You're not complete…but you aren't nearly as empty as you were," he affirmed, melting away.

"If you just look at what you have, build on it and let it take you...where it takes you."

* * *

><p>Nami awoke to the feeling of something heavy on her arm.<p>

She looked down and saw Robin, fast asleep and laying her head on her with her hand still in Nami's. Chopper was nearby, his head fallen forward to snore into the book he'd been going through. He had taken the I.V. out at some point.

A smile crept onto her lips and she swiped at her cheeks, tear trails both old and new making her skin raw. Careful not to wake either of them, she lifted Robin off of herself and moved out of the bed, intent on getting a glass of water. The lights, save the desk light Chopper had probably left on, were out, which meant she had probably been out the entire day.

_What am I supposed to do, huh guys? I can't stay with you. I won't. I could never ask that of you-_

She pulled open the door, and something fell into the office with a thud. She blinked in surprise, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the dark.

…_Usopp?_

She lifted her face to stare out into the kitchen, and this time, she couldn't stop the water works no matter how stupid she felt.

Scattered around the kitchen, apparently waiting for their navigator to wake up, were the rest of the guys. Franky was laid out over the dining room table with a blanket that barely covered his huge form. Zoro had fallen asleep straddling a chair facing the office door. Brook and Usopp had passed out on each other's shoulders in front of the door, Brook's head still held up by the angle the door was open at. Sanji's legs stuck out from behind the kitchen island.

Her heart hurt. Conflicting doubts about what she should do flooded in and she let out a small sob.

"Nami?"

She turned to look back, now for the first time noticing the other figure in the room.

Luffy had fallen asleep at the foot of the bed, unnoticed until now. He blinked at her, confused as to why she was up.

"You feel okay?" he asked sleepily, "Want me to wake Chopper?"

"No, no I'm fine," she quivered unconvincingly. He started to get up, but she gestured that he should stay and walked over to him. They sat knee to knee so they wouldn't have to talk loud.

"You're crying," he said, offering a corner of his shirt and frowning. She wiped her nose and he grimaced, making her laugh a little.

"Just a lot of things to think about," she replied, looking away. He nodded slowly.

"Sanji says…I put a baby in you."

She smiled sadly.

"Yeah. Basically."

He sighed and shifted his eyes, probably still confused about something. She bit her tongue in case his question was ridiculous.

"So…you have to poop it out?"

She choked, plastering both hands over her mouth to keep the outburst of laughter in. When she had calmed down and gotten over the glare he was giving her, she flicked his nose.

"You don't poop a baby out, idiot."

_Please, God, don't let him ask me what the difference between the holes is..._

Her prayers were answered and he adopted a more serious face.

"Nami…I don't really get it, but you're sick. And Sanji said it will be like this for a while." He looked at her stomach and then back at her face. "I wanna help you."

"Luffy, you can't be serious," she said, shaking her head. "I don't seriously expect you to take this on. This isn't your fault. There are things you, and everyone else need to focus on instead of me and a baby."

"But what about your dream?" he said with quiet intensity. "Who cares if we have one more nakama?"

"It's not even born yet," she said flatly, waving a hand at him. "Don't be so sure it wants to be your nakama. It wouldn't even know what it's gotten itself into."

"But…this…means I'm its father, right?" he said slowly.

She had fantasized, probably more times than she cared to admit, the moment when she might one day be able to tell Luffy he was going to be a father. All of the events leading up to it, all of the things they would do, all the things they would both be feeling…

She looked in his eyes and didn't see any of it the way she wanted to. And yet, here they were.

"Yes. This is something we made together," she said calmly. "This child is yours."

"Then it will definitely like me," he said, narrowing his eyes and speaking with confidence. "It will definitely want to join my crew." She grinned.

"You're both my nakama now, right?" He grinned widely and held up a hand for her to high five.

In the entirety of the time she had known him, Nami couldn't recall ever hugging Luffy. At least out of a pure emotional urge to. He blinked in surprise when her hands reached out to grip his shirt flaps, and she pulled herself into him. He looked down at the top of her head, some of her orange hair threatening to get stuck in his mouth if he opened it to ask why she was doing this.

"Yeah. Yep. Whatever you say," she choked, body slowly wracking into sobs that she wasn't really sure were sad, happy, both…

He returned the embrace, though still kind of confused.

"You smell like puke," he whispered, shishishi-ing through his teeth.

Her cries grew loud enough to wake everyone else, the entire crew struggling to shove themselves into the tiny office.

"NAMI-NEE I WAS SO SCARED! I COULDN'T EVEN DECIDE WHETHER TO CRY BECAUSE YOU'RE SICK OR BECAUSE I'M GONNA BE AN UNCLE!"

"A GLOWING, PRIDEFUL MOTHER NAMI-SWAN WILL SURELY BE THE MOST GLORIOUS KIND IMAGINABLE!"

"I don't care as long as it doesn't wake me up at all hours of the night…"

"YOHOHOHO if it comes to that, I can play my violin. Though you'll have to tell me if it cries since I don't have ears to hear…"

"I'm thinking that if I build the crib like this, it'll be more likely to sleep through the night, right?"

"Nami! I've been researching, and I think that if Sanji switches to this kind of diet for you…"

"Navigator-san," Robin said, smiling. "They all want you here with them."

_"We're a family…"_

Nami cried like she'd never cried before, snot and drool dripping down Luffy's shirt as he laughed at her and everyone else practically enveloped her in the most cramped group hug to ever take place.


	7. Down With The Sickness

Morning Sickness. All-day-feeling-of-death seemed to cover more of what Nami was feeling.

She groaned, an ice pack on her stomach and forehead to try to relieve herself of some of the discomfort. It was just so damn hot.

An entire month of baking and all this kid seemed to want to do was make its oven miserable. Where was the joy part, huh? Where was the mother-child bond? Where was the overwhelming feeling of instinctive protectiveness?

"Listen you," she mumbled at her navel, caressing her belly gently, "We might as well get along if we're stuck together like this."

No response. Not even born and it was already exuding signs of early teenage defiance. Brat.

_You're going to be just like your father, aren't you._

She paused in her bitter train of thoughts long enough to blush ashamedly at the brief fantasy that danced over her brain. She groaned more loudly and bounced her feet over the edge of the lounge chair, Usopp turning from his fishing to look back at her and grin.

"You look ridiculous," he teased, noting the angled umbrella, battery powered fan and stack of pregnancy literature Chopper had recommended she look at in her spare time.

The thought of her a few months from now in the same skimpy string bikini she wore encouraged another small burst of giggles and a shake of the head.

"Yeah, well, fuck you," she growled, glaring at the nearly empty glass of water Sanji had brought her a while ago. Should she trek to the kitchen herself or bitch from here? Tough decision…

"Oi, Usopp," she grumbled, "get me some more water."

"I don't think being pregnant makes you nearly as helpless as you're playing it out to," Usopp said dryly. "Besides. I'm getting us some dinner."

"Tch. What kind of man are you," she said, letting herself ooze out of the chair like something that had melted. She heard him mimicking her as she trudged up to the galley herself, sweating like a pig and trying not to hate everything.

Upon entering, she noticed Sanji was, in a rare turn of events, not even in the kitchen. Robin turned from her conversation with Franky at the dining table to smile at her.

"You look stunning, Navigator-san," she chuckled. Nami's bottom lip protruded so her teeth were gritted in a fish-of-prey fashion.

"I don't want to hear it," she snarled, ignoring whatever Franky had begun saying and slithering into the kitchen to fill the glass with water and its solid counterpart. She sipped carefully, not wanting to upset the equilibrium her stomach had finally succeeded in finding.

"Cook-san is in a joint nutrition meeting with Doctor-san," the archaeologist said. "They're trying to figure out what will have to be stocked up on when we reach the next island."

Nami sighed. So much planning for her sake. She didn't like dwelling on it for fear her already berserk emotions might be triggered into making her a beast. And the baby wasn't even here. Just how much was this going to effect everyone?

And _money_. Another mouth to feed would eventually mean more money would be needed. She visibly curled within herself, Robin and Franky blinking at each other and shrugging.

"Er…on another note, nee-chan, you were super cool during that last storm," Franky tried to offer. "Despite your handicap, you've really stepped it up. Super impressive!"

He and Robin watched Nami turn lobster red, turning to them with her mouth practically falling off her face she looked so downtrodden.

Ah, yes. _That_ storm. An apparently heroic moment in Nami's life to everyone but her.

She could remember it like it was only a week ago…probably because it had been only a week ago…

* * *

><p><em>The waves had started off disturbingly fresh in the day, gradually hinting that something larger would be coming. Nami stood, though a bit shakily, gripping the rail and trying to read the wind. Franky stood beside her, ready to take orders.<em>

_"This is bad, Franky. I feel a Force 10 at least."_

_"Whole gale, huh. How fast?"_

_She smacked her lips together and stepped away, putting her hair up with a hair tie._

_"I'd say around 104/km…"_

_He frowned._

_"That's a near full storm…"_

_"Problem is the timing," she murmured, moving to lean forward on her arms. "It'll be here within the hour. But I don't know from where."_

_"So we can't just fly out can we…"_

_"Not yet. Just let me concentrate," she said quietly. He nodded and left her to her job._

_New World storms were disturbingly fast hitters. After twenty-two minutes of watching her just kneel next to the ship, apparently lost in concentration, her eyes snapped open._

_"Bowse the sails," she said quickly, sending Franky out to take care of things. She walked briskly up to her spot on the second level, Chopper falling into step with her._

_"Franky's manning the helm, so I need you to make sure the hatches are battened."_

_She gazed down at Brook, Zoro, Usopp and Sanji working quickly, then looked nervously at the trembling log pose. It was going berserk._

_"Oi, Nami," Luffy said, twisting from up in the rigging to fall beside her, "it's a big storm right?"_

_"It's near hurricane level, but I can't get a handle on where the…"_

_Dark clouds rolled in from out of nowhere and she cursed under her breath as a behemoth gust of wind whipped her face raw. She heard Luffy fly off into the wall._

_"Shit, Frank-"_

_Her voice was drowned out by the thunder that accompanied the instantaneous waves, the red-head struggling to keep herself from being thrashed about like a rag doll. She noticed some of Robin's arms working to help get things completely situated, fingers securing knots._

_Rain stung her eyeballs, making it difficult to see._

_"Franky! More port or we'll broach!"_

_"Gotcha!" he called over the noise, hair soaked and his stance awkward as he struggled to stay upright._

_"Pull the CDB up when-"_

_There was a snap, and she whipped her head up to see one of the pulley's on the boom vang flying at her face. She felt herself being pulled out of the way, slipping on the wet planks and ending up in Luffy's lap. He had an arm twisted around the railing and the other gripping her around the waist._

_"If I hold you up, would that help?" he asked loudly, blinking through the rain._

_She was about to answer when Franky's man-call of 'hold the fuck on' rolled with the lightning over the ship, everyone who wasn't being gripped by a guy made of rubber having to make due so they didn't fly off into oblivion._

_"I've got you," he muttered next to her ear, glaring out at the white crests of monstrous waves and bracing both of them for take-off. She blushed despite the situation and shakily gripped him back._

_Franky laughed gleefully and whooped as the ship jarred and blasted itself into clearer sky. Nami instinctively pulled herself closer to her support knowing they were now on the descent. She was surprised to feel Luffy start to inflate himself when they reached the height of their flight. Then, upon landing, he positioned her over his stomach._

_She understood: the initial shock might hurt the baby if there was nothing to counteract it…_

_Waves shot up at the disturbance, Sunny skimming along the surface until it found itself some balance in its new waters. Luffy bounced like an oversized medicine ball, arm acting as a tether to keep himself and his navigator in place._

_Robin rushed over to look up at them from the deck._

_"Navigator-san, are you alright?" she asked worriedly._

_"Shit. The rope was chafing," Zoro muttered angrily, ignoring Sanji's loud berating of his care in checking the lines and climbing up to secure it back in place._

_"I'm fine," Nami called weakly, still limp and hanging over Luffy's slowly deflating body. He smiled at her and she took a moment to stare into his beaming face._

_"Luffy, that was some quick thinking," she said quietly, cheeks red despite her normal feelingless exterior. She was really trying hard not to lose herself completely in the glitter that was fogging her vision._

_"Well, Sanji says we've gotta be careful with you," he explained with a giggle. "Good thing I'm made of rubber, eh?"_

_Yes. It was a very good thing._

_Her heart swelled inside her chest, the simple act of Luffy, whether he knew it or not, acting like a father to their child regardless of their relationship at such an early stage in her pregnancy…_

_It was so...attractive._

_"Luffy," she muttered, leaning her face closer to his. He blinked at her, watching her eyes._

_She was so, so close to him. And then-_

* * *

><p>"I actually think Senchou acted with a degree of graciousness that truly shows he's grown up a little," Robin mused, sipping her lemonade.<p>

"Yeah, you shouldn't dwell on it, Nami-nee," Franky said sympathetically. "You couldn't really help it. After the storm, and the bouncing and all the excitement…and Mugiwara did laugh it off…"

"I guess it just shows he's serious about helping you through this," Zoro said, having come in from outside, eyes lit with amusement at Nami's obvious embarrassment. "Hurling all over him to seal the deal…"

"I ALMOST DIED BECAUSE OF YOUR INCOMPETENCE. I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THIS FROM YOU," she yelled, splashing her leftover water in his face. His deadpan expression made Robin choke a little on her beverage with laughter. "AND I WOULDN'T HAVE TO DWELL ON IT IF _SOMEBODY_," she turned to Franky, "WOULD STOP BRINGING IT UP."

The cyborg scratched his neck and chuckled as she refilled her glass, replaced the ice cubes and jabbed a swirly straw in it before storming out and back into the heat. She glanced at the log pose to make sure they were still on track. Yep. Nothing exciting happening there.

Usopp waved at her from where he was still fishing.

"Usopp," she called, "where's Luffy?"

"Think he's in the room. Probably sleeping. Everyone else is busy and he didn't wanna fish because it's so hot," he replied passively. Then he narrowed his eyes and turned to her saying, "If he is, and you find him, tell him to get his ass out here and help me. Especially if he expects to eat any of the magnificent fish I'm going to catch."

"Looks like all you've got is bait there still," Nami said with teasing cruelty. "We're gonna feast tonight."

"You just wait. I'm gonna catch a huge one," he shouted, raising his fist in determination. She rolled her eyes and journeyed down to the guys' room.

The door was closed so she knocked, the faint sound of a guitar floating up from the door crack. Luffy answered with a grin, leaning on the door a little. He wasn't wearing a shirt, but it wasn't like she had come dressed to impress either...

"Yo! What's up?"

"What's up with you?" she asked suspiciously, looking past him to see Brook waving at her from the low couch against the wall. She gave Luffy a smirk. "You're not trying to learn how to play, are you?"

"Nope. We're just talking. You can come in if ya want," he offered, moving aside to let her in.

"Ah, Nami-san," Brook said with a sigh. "You are a picture of loveliness in that bathing suit. Or I'm sure you would be if I had eyes to see. YOHOHOHO~"

"For every fantasy you have of me in my panties, I raise your debt," she growled, sitting on the floor and sipping through the straw.

"You're not gonna puke, right?" Luffy asked teasingly, no ill intended but making veins tick over Nami's face anyway.

"Yeah. Why else would I venture into this smelly room but to find you and puke on you," she grumbled. That was his new thing. Asking her if she had to puke. She was now considering it. It did smell like dirty socks. And various other disgusting things her hormones insisted she pick up on...

Brook yohoho'd and struck a minor chord on his guitar. Luffy laughed, then tripped on some stray laundry and tumbled across the floor.

_I can't laugh. Because I slept with it._

And was now carrying 'its' child. She stared long and hard at Luffy, then at her stomach, pondering what kind of traits it would pick up from both of them. Would she give birth to a moron? She really, really hoped not. The only saving grace Luffy got was that he was made of rubber. No, this kid would definitely be smart. Smarter than her. A genius-

"What'cha lookin' at?" Luffy asked, picking his nose and staring back at her. "It's rude to stare."

"As if you have any actual idea of what the word 'rude' entails. And I'm the one that told you it's rude to stare," she said miserably, losing confidence in whatever sperm had won the race.

"I want some," he said, pointing at her water. "Gimme."

"Not a chance," she said, turning away from him. His mouth fell open in disbelief.

"Stingy."

"You just picked your nose. As if I'd let you touch this."

"I don't have to touch it. You have a straw."

"It's mine."

"You're a jerk."

"Go get your own."

"Jeeerk~"

He had crawled over and was now reaching behind her back for the water, both of them shouting and pulling each other's hair. The liquid miraculously stayed in the glass throughout the whole thing.

"Luffy-san, I'm getting some anyway. I'll bring you back your own," Brook said, chuckling as he left them alone to their…spat.

"Brook likes me," Luffy said passive aggressively, staring her down.

"He feels sorry for you because you're retarded."

"I AM NOT."

Nami spit in the water, and Luffy's jaw dropped in defeat. She thought she had won, and then he apparently decided he didn't mind and snatched it from her. He started drinking it.

She glared at him, then muttered an audible 'penis' and he spit whatever liquid hadn't been swallowed yet, caught between laughing hysterically and being pissed at her.

"N-NAMI," he choked out, "WHAT THE HELL."

She grinned and shrugged. "Not my fault you have such a stupid sense of humor." Usopp was a terrible influence on the innocent, but it came in handy sometimes…

He glared at her, then decided it was too hot to argue further, so he flopped on the floor. She moved the now empty glass out of the way and laid down next to him on her stomach.

"What was Brook talking about?" she asked. His eyes brightened.

"What it was like being on tour. He went to a lot of places…met a lot of people…ate as much food as he wanted…"

"Wow. Sounds REALLY different from your life."

"Not really. I told him we do that already."

She sighed. The density was astounding.

"So he had fun, huh?"

Luffy turned to her and nodded.

"Yeah. He played me a new song he's been working on. I liked it."

"Does he have lyrics yet?"

"There weren't any words. Just guitar. But he can put words with it later I guess…"

She nodded, then sighed into her arms, closing her eyes. They laid in silence for a few minutes before she decided to open her eyes a crack. He was looking at her.

"What? Something on my face?"

"Nah," he said, grinning. "It's nice that you don't feel as sick though, eh?"

It was true. She felt better. Maybe all she had needed was some of his…sparkling conversation.

"It's cooler in here," she offered quietly. "That's probably it."

"Is it 'cause it's growing? Like a plant?" he asked innocently, pointing at her stomach. "The baby?"

"Yeah. The body needs to adjust to having someone else inside of it."

His eyes glimmered with admiration. "That's so cool."

She rolled her eyes. That was probably the highest honor she could hope to achieve. Being 'cool'. The same category as Franky's rockets and various laser beams. And beetles.

"I'm glad I entertain you," she said sleepily, drifting away from reality to dream land.

She vaguely felt finger tips brush the side of her stomach. She smiled a little and turned over so he could feel it better. He was asking her something, but she couldn't quite bring herself around to hear all of it.

And that's how Brook found them after slipping in quietly with his water. Both of them sound asleep, his hand over her belly and snoring like he was trying to wake the dead. Though he was already awake.

He wanted to smile, but he had no skin to do such a thing. Pity.

* * *

><p>"Usopp, how the hell did you manage to catch that thing," Sanji said, impressed. The blonde was busy cooking the meat as fast as he could while Usopp, Zoro and Franky worked to cut the meat from the bones of the humongous fish Usopp had, by some cosmic miracle, managed to catch and bring aboard.<p>

"I got stronger too, you know," the sniper said, slightly offended by everyone's surprise at his success. "I can pull one of these in by myself." He glared over at Luffy, who was nursing a burnt hand after trying to steal meat straight after being cooked. "Not like I had SOMEBODY'S help anyway…"

Chopper finished setting the table and looked around.

"Has anyone seen Nami? I wanted to ask if I could examine her after dinner…"

"I'm afraid she's busy at the moment," Sanji cringed, cooking as fast as he could. "Poor Nami-swan can't stand the smell coming from here and is probably still sick…"

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile, on the other end of the ship…<strong>

Robin held Nami's hair up and stroked her back gently while she emptied her stomach into the sea.

"You both drank the wine," Chimati said, sitting comfortably a few feet away and shrugging. "I can't ignore his simple minded happiness either. And he was hungry. So I might've sent a sea king for your nose friend to catch…"

"WHAT ABOUT MY HAPPINESS? I AM NOT HAPPY RIGHT NOW."

"I guess the short term beats the long term sometimes…"

"First," Nami said dangerously, spitting into the water, "I'm gonna murder you. And then-" She was cut off by the need to heave again.

_I'm going to murder Luffy…_


	8. The Vigil Light pt 1: Rat Race

_Money. The most misunderstood thing on the planet. Money does not make men corrupt. Men corrupt themselves by wasting their lives away, enslaving themselves to appease their lusts for money. Money can't help that so many people want it..._

"I understand you," Nami muttered lovingly, the cushion of her cheek comforting a gold statue of some unknown deity. Obviously a very forlorn, yearning to be loved deity. Obviously.

The familiar drone of the more gentle female crew member's voice sounded on the other side of the door, "Navigator-san, the boys have already gone ashore. I was wondering if you might come out now so we can find the log-pose station."

"Robin~ don't make me go," Nami cried pathetically.

"You need some fresh air. You've been down there all day, barely coming out to see anyone…except for Chopper-san, none of us have really seen you all week."

"I feel better in here," Nami reasoned, pouting audible in her voice. "I don't need air. I need…uh…"

"Please don't make me break the door down," Robin said witheringly. "Franky-san has enough to fix around here with Senchou cooped up most days."

Leave it to Luffy to take up any patience anyone might have left to just leave her alone. She placed the statue back in its respective bag and shook out her hair, stepping out of the storage room and giving robin a look that told her to be grateful she was complying.

"I wonder if we should bring the wine out," Robin said thoughtfully, ignoring Nami's passive aggressive glare. "This island looks full of people that might be more well-off."

"We'll see," the red-head replied, both of them squinting as they came back out into the sunlight, "I wanna see for myself."

Nausea was beginning to set in again. Nami grimaced at the almost bipolar way her stomach reacted to leaving the storage room. And it hadn't taken her long to figure out that, that _was_ in fact what seemed to be the deciding factor of what food she could actually keep down lately. When she was chillin' with her money, everything just seemed to feel better. She'd never admit it since that would just seem silly to everyone else, but it was just another excuse to do what she loved most, right? Right.

She didn't notice Robin had already vacated until she felt multiple arms pulling and shuffling her down and off the ship like dozens of well trained gentlemen. She stepped onto land and blinked at her friend, who was chuckling at her dazed expression.

"You really spent a bit too much time in the dark, didn't you," she said smoothly, tightening her skirt and flicking her aviators onto her face before walking towards town. Nami glowered but followed her.

* * *

><p>"I'm worried about how frequently she vomits," Chopper said, picking up a different bottle and reading the label. Sanji stood beside him, frowning.<p>

"She eats when I tell her to," he said, "but because she can't keep about half of it down, the nutrients might not even make it to where they need to be."

"These will help," Chopper said in response, holding up one of the bottles and putting it in the basket. "I read that if there's not enough fatty acids there will be trouble forming brain tissue. If it were a different situation I might not stress a multivitamin. But if this continues I can't stand by and watch. Help me look for calcium supplements…"

Sanji moved onto the next aisle and passed by a window, a row of charming shops much like the one they were in on the other side of the dirt road. He and Chopper had admired many of the large homes on this island, all of them well kept with good landscaping and what seemed like nice inhabitants. There was…something bugging him though…

"Do you happen to know anything about the outpost on the other side of this island?" he asked the clerk, putting some provisions along with Chopper's finds on the counter. The clerk nodded.

"You're probably wondering why nobody's come to bring you in," the middle-aged man said with a smirk. Sanji raised his eyebrows and chuckled. Apparently they were famous even in places like this.

"Yeah I suppose."

"This island doesn't see a lot of action because of the outpost," the clerk started, lifting his glasses to read the bottle label with some scrutiny. "The marine's come through here regularly as a formality, so big shots usually keep their mouths shut and continue on their way, staying out of trouble."

"A formality? They aren't here specifically…to protect the citizens then?"

"Oh, they do their job just fine. Everybody knows what they're really after though…"

Sanji waited for him to continue, but he'd finished bagging the goods and seemed to be waiting for the cook to-

Oh. Well, apparently the folks here did know how to deal with pirates.

Sanji smirked and flipped him a few more beri, earning a knowing look. The clerk pocketed it and leaned on his elbows.

"There is a family on this island that supposedly inherited The Vigil Light."

Sanji blinked.

"…The what?"

"The Vigil Light. Nobody's ever actually seen it or knows exactly what it does, but because of the blood line that apparently keeps its location a secret, the world government keeps a slight eye on this place at all times."

"So that's why the marine's are here?"

"That outpost was built here mere months after the war on Marineford. With all the loose cannons running around, they didn't wanna take a chance that a pirate would get their hands on it before them. It's insane. Nobody actually knows if this thing exists, and yet they spend the goddamn money to park a bunch of their pawns here to guard it."

"Then they're too occupied to deal with people coming in and out? That doesn't make sense. Wouldn't they want to keep track of everyone?"

"Most pirates don't believe it even exists. It's a treasure without any sure map. No way of finding it. The only clue they've got, is that family up on that hill there."

The clerk pointed out the small window behind the counter at a huge mansion sitting alone on one of the few hills gracing the island. Chopper had come to stand beside Sanji mid story so he was a little confused.

"I'm sure the marine's keep in close contact with them," Sanji said, a bit intrigued. "The Vigil Light. It sounds very…"

"Shiny," Chopper said, eyes dancing and mouth curled in a smile. "If they've never seen it though, how can they have a name for it?"

"Well," the clerk said, bobbing his head in thought, "there's been numerous rumors coming and going through the years…like perhaps the soul of a deceased maiden resides in it and makes it glow. Suppose that'd make it a hell of a lot easier to find, eh?"

"What do you think?" Sanji asked, gathering up his groceries and giving some over to Chopper.

"Psh. I don't believe in that supernatural stuff, and until I see it myself I refuse to dwell on it, but…" he smiled, a gold tooth glinting from under his trimmed mustache. "If it's made of pure gold like I'd hope, those bastards can't be blamed for keeping it hidden all this time."

"Thanks again," Sanji called, halfway out the door.

"You enjoy those pills, bub," the clerk joked. "And stay out of Nezumi's way. He's a bloodthirsty little bugger. Most of the marine's under him won't look at you twice if they're doin' something else, but he might become interested in you if you start sniffing around after what I've told you. Best to do your business and get out of this place fast as possible."

Sanji froze and turned back to him with a serious look on his face. Ashes fell from his cig tip and into the dirt of the road.

"…Can you repeat that name?"

"Nezumi. He's only a captain, but I can see why they'd put him here. Bastard loves money. And _potential_ money. If anyone can get those goons on the hill to crack, it's him."

"Sanji?" Chopper asked softly, not liking the look on his friend's face, "What's wrong?"

But Sanji was already moving. Chopper hopped after him, then went into Walking Point when Sanji instructed him to

"Chopper, I need you to take the groceries back to the ship," the blonde said. "I need to find Nami-san. Now."

* * *

><p>"I build a little bit myself," the bar keep chuckled, letting himself become immersed with the conversation he was keeping. "I built my house…my shed…the barn…"<p>

"Sounds like you keep yourself fairly busy," Usopp remarked, impressed. Luffy wolfed down meat next to him, Zoro beyond them both with a half consumed beer.

"I built the majority of it with the family fortune. Never felt right relying on it completely though, so I built this place. It gets decent business. We haven't had many pirates come through here lately, specially none as known as you guys…"

"There's still rookie pirates here in the New World? I thought everyone started out on the Grand Line…"

"Unfortunately that's not how it goes. Pirate's that have stood the test's of the Grand Line have proven to be weathered enough to take on this half of the journey, but there are crew's that start here that are just as well known."

"Those Fishman Pirates didn't have a particular reason to look for One Piece," Zoro pointed out, eye narrowing. "You probably get a lot of morons just looking to make trouble."

"We hear about it all the time," the bar keep said solemnly. "We're very lucky here. The bit of protection this island receives has been…" his eyes looked tiredly at the counter, "a blessing. I suppose."

Luffy looked at him, pausing in his eating. Usopp caught the mood as well, wondering if there might be more behind that statement.

* * *

><p>"Young man, I can't thank you enough," the old woman chortled up at Franky, his hands full of bags.<p>

"No problem! If there's anyone more qualified to carry tons of stuff than me, I haven't met him yet!"

"Well you're certainly a very large man aren't you," her voice quavered. "My son always tells me to stay in the house when he's not around, but we needed groceries for the pantry and my daughter in-law is so busy with the chores…"

"It's no problem, Obaa-san," he assured her with a thousand watt smile. "Your house sure is a long ways away from the town though, ain't it?"

"We run a bed and breakfast in that one, right on the hill," she said, pointing up where the winding road ended. Franky narrowed his eyes.

"You walked all the way down here yourself? Ain't that kinda far for an old woman?"

"I do aerobics!" she said proudly. Without a bit of hesitation, she dropped her cane and went into a piece of choreographed exuberance. Franky's jaw dropped and his eyes sparkled with admiration.

"OW! TEACH ME HOW TO DO THAT!" he yelled. He then went into his own number, grocery bags swinging from each huge hands. She narrowed her eyes slyly and wagged a finger at him.

"Ohohoho it's been awhile since I've met a fellow enthusiast. We'll have some tea and I'll show you my favorite dance tape."

"Sounds SUPER~" he announced, continuing up the hill with her now back in assumed granny mode and moving like a turtle with a hernia.

* * *

><p>"You can't be serious!" Nami cried, eyes pleading with the guy behind the desk. He gave her a sympathetic look and showed her the empty shelf.<p>

"I'm sorry, but we haven't had many recent visitors. All of the set log poses are gone. And this island is pretty near the edge of the magnetic pull. I'd say you'll be here about three weeks if nothing comes up."

"When was the last time we had to wait three weeks," Nami moaned, sliding her hands through her tangled hair and glancing at Robin. She frowned when there was no immediate reply. Typical. Nami was having a crisis and she wasn't even paying attention to her.

"Try to keep the dramatics to a minimum, Navigator-san," the archaeologist recommended with a slow blink of the eyes. "You have enough on your hands as it is. And three weeks in a place like this might not be so bad. Considering your," she paused and smiled softly, "condition."

It was true. The idea of getting on the ship right now and just going, going, going did not appeal to Nami. In fact…

"Do you…have a bathroom," she asked weakly, resisting the urge to clutch at her stomach and looking around for a possible restroom. Or trash bin. Anything.

The guy blinked and looked more than a little wary that she would puke on him. He pointed to a hallway and she nodded her thanks, Robin chuckling with soft mirth.

* * *

><p>"Chopper-san! What's the rush!" Brook called out from the ship's railing, waving his cane. Chopper leaped up, the skeleton's arm stretching out to catch the lone bag in danger of falling off of Chopper's antler's.<p>

"We've got trouble," the reindeer said, flustered with sweat collecting underneath his furry face. "Sanji says there's a man on this island who might recognize us."

"Oh? An old friend?"

"No. Apparently he caused some trouble for Nami back when she first joined the crew."

"So a familiar face from before we were even around," he said thoughtfully. "How thrilling. I think I'm getting goosebumps. OH. I cannot! Because I have no skin! YOHOHOHO!"

Chopper struggled through laughter, trying to remain serious.

"This…this isn't the time!" he giggled. "I'm going to go back out and look for Nami in case Sanji hasn't found her yet. If Sanji has a bad feeling, it's enough to make me worried, so just watch the ship until we get back!"

And with that, he bounded off the ship again, leaving Brook on watch once more.

"Leaving the skeleton with no eyes on watch," he mused to himself, heading off to put the groceries away. "How ironic."

* * *

><p>"What the hell are you blathering on about," Zoro grumbled, leaning on the bar and staring at Sanji, who was busy trying to catch his breath.<p>

Normally a run like he'd just had was nothing. But the thought of his beautiful crew member possibly being taken captive while he was running errands put a tremendous amount of stress on his emotions. And Zoro's shitty attitude at his flustered explanation of why they had to get out of here upon his dramatic entrance into the bar was not helping.

"Trust me on this. We need to find Nami-san and Robin-chan, and get the hell out of here."

"I'd encourage that, but you're acting like something's about to go down," the bar keep said with some concern. "In the two years Nezumi and his men have been here, I can't say I've-"

"Who?" Usopp interrupted, suddenly interested.

"He's the bastard that swindled Nami-san out of her money by taking a deal with Arlong and shot her sister," Sanji snarled, kicking a bar stool. "Why he's here is a long explanation, but we can think of that once we're outta here."

"You guys know Nezumi?" the bar keep asked. Luffy shoved his plate away from himself and got up.

"Thanks for the food," he said quietly, securing his hat and taking a few steps for the door. Sanji nodded his approval of his apparent decision and followed. They opened the door and were immediately greeted by the whiskered face they all remembered so well. Or in Zoro's case, vaguely…and in Luffy's case…almost not at all…

"Rat face," the rubber man said bluntly, pointing at him and frowning.

"I see my sources were correct," Nezumi said flatly, arms behind his back and two subordinates with guns on either side of him.

"Long time no see, Straw Hat Luffy."

* * *

><p>"I'm just glad I found you guys," Chopper said, relieved. Nami slumped against his neck, too ill to go on without someone's help. She was just grateful it had been their reindeer friend that had found them instead of the Perverted Wonder. At this point, she probably would've needed to ask him to carry her back to the ship, which she knew all too well he wouldn't have minded in the least.<p>

"Navigator-san is in rough shape, as you can see," Robin said calmly. "I thought it might do her some good to get off the ship, but it seems there are other things bearing on her mind."

"Three weeks," Chopper mused unenthusiastically. "That's a long time. Especially with the outpost on this island."

Robin frowned, not sure what he was talking about. She looked up though, and blinked.

"Isn't that Senchou and the rest of them?"

Chopper looked further up the road, eyes widening when he caught sight of the rest of the crew.

"Are we almost back?" Nami asked hopefully, lifting herself up to see why they'd stopped walking. Her pupils dilated upon locking onto the familiarly disgusting face of her former antagonist.

_Why the hell is he here…_

"EH? NAMI?"

Chopper's eyes bulged out of their sockets, Nami apparently over her illness and starting to walk up the street to the group, reaching into her jeans and pulling out her climatact.

* * *

><p>"Like I said, I have no business with you," Nezumi snarled, attempting to push his way through the group and into the bar. They all stepped aside, more out of confusion than anything.<p>

"Mori," he yelled upon entering. "I need you out here. Now."

"I told you not to bother me at work," the bar keep said indifferently, glancing up from cleaning the plate Luffy had been using. "You keep scaring away my business."

"Oi, Rat Man," Luffy said, glaring. "What the hell. Why are you even here, huh?"

"I suggest you shut up and get off this island while I'm still standing here ignoring you," the marine captain said icily. "Don't think I've forgotten the humiliation I suffered at the hands of you and your friends."

"I would hope you haven't forgotten either," Nami's equally cold voice rose from outside, her heeled footsteps bringing her past the incredulous looks of her friends until she stood before Nezumi. He grinned darkly.

"If it isn't the little cat. Good to see you grew out of your unkept phase and turned into something a little easier on the eyes."

"What the hell are you doing here," she said fiercely, eyes alight. "You're supposed to be rebuilding my village, you swine."

"Taken care of. I've got a new assignment now."

"Get outside," she said with quiet intensity. "I'm not in a good mood and I feel the need to kick your ass some more."

"Please," Mori said, trying to get everyone to calm down. "He's only here to talk with me. Leave before things get out of hand."

"Nami-san," Sanji said soothingly, "please settle down. You'll get sick."

"Oi, Nami," Luffy said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Sanji's right. Let us handle this."

"I'm fine," she said confidently, blinking at his hand. There was a calming wave flowing through her arm…

"How precious," Nezumi sneered. "Looking out for the girl's feelings of nostalgia. How pathetic. What kind of pirates are you? Did the Grand Line not harden you enough?"

"Nezumi," Mori said firmly, setting his dish towel down. "Stop trying to start something. You're here," he smirked a little, "because it isn't here yet, right?"

Nezumi whirled on him, teeth gritted in irritation.

"If you would just give me the information I need, we would be able to make you KING'S among men."

"We do pretty well for ourselves. I never thought you'd go out of your way to bargain with pirates, though…"

"Trust me. He's got some experience in that area," Nami spat bitterly, letting Luffy hold her back.

"The wine is a sad loss, but I'm not giving up," he snarled viciously. "Tell me where you're hiding it."

Nami's heart skipped a beat.

…_Wine?_

"Only those with the key will find it," Mori said cryptically, casting his eyes to stare down at the bar. "Not even I-"

"You've said this already," Nezumi twitched, lips curling scarily over his teeth.

"And that's all I have to say," Mori said, shrugging.

Nezumi stared at him for a moment before stalking out of the bar and into the streets, completely ignoring the crew as he headed back to the outpost with his lackey's. Luffy finally let go of Nami.

"The Vigil Light," Sanji said, turning to Mori. "That's what he wants, right?"

Mori smiled bitterly.

"I think it best you get off of this island while you have the chance."


	9. The Vigil Light pt 2: The Bed We've Made

"This is what happens every time you ignore the gravity of the situation I'm describing to you," Nezumi said into the den-den mushi, hand shaking in anger. "If you had intercepted the wine at the proper time, we wouldn't have this huge gray area to account for."

"Your subordinates were apparently not enough to carry it the distance it needed to go. Do not put this on us," the snaily face grunted back at him.

"All I'm saying, is that at this point, blame is of no consequence. If we can't find it, it's harder to continue on with the investigation," Nezumi muttered a bit more calmly. "That is the only chance we have."

"Captain, I realize your job within the Investigation Bureau might have some fancy titles and nice face value attached to it, but the reality is that this is on the back burner right now," came his superior's serious voice. "We covered up that embarrassing stunt you pulled in East Blue, and put you where you are because we know you're good at weaseling around for tid bits of information…"

Nezumi's forehead prickled with angry veins, wondering if this was some sort of sick compliment.

"…We've got island's all over at the mercy of threats we never thought we'd have to deal with again. This…whatever it is…you're working on finding, is not top priority. If we don't have any progress-"

"He hasn't denied anything," Nezumi snarled. "He's been compliant in every way possible. We've searched his home several times, we've scoured the island until we've memorized every cave and tree of even the slightest suspicion."

"Then why the hell are you still there?"

"Because he knows something. Something else we're not getting," he hissed at the snail, slamming his fist on the desk wood. "He keeps saying, 'the key' this, and 'the key' that, and I finally thought I'd made the connection with the wine. And then you had to fuck up your coordinate's and my contact with the carrier was severed."

"The New World is harder to navigate. Besides, where the hell did you manage to find this…mythical…uh…wine stuff anyway? How do you even know it's what you were looking for if you never saw it yourself?"

"_Because Mori told me where to find it_," Nezumi shouted, eyes wild. "He _knew_ where it would be. And he _knew_ it would be intercepted. The only thing he apparently can't tell me," he snarled, picking up the snail so they were face to face, "is where it is right now."

There was silence on the other end, and then a sigh.

"What do you propose, then."

"I've had them on twenty-four hour surveillance for a while now, but that brings me to the other thing I'm calling about."

"Spit it out."

"I just wanted to inform you," the rat faced man said bitterly, "that the poster you made for that kid the first time I called you people about the Straw Hat's still doesn't satisfy me. I will make sure to obtain a more sinister photo of him while his crew is stuck here with me."

"You gotta be shittin' me. For real?"

"Don't feel obligated to send anyone," Nezumi said, wrapping up the conversation. "G5 can take care of things on their end, but I'd rather not stir up trouble if they don't first. I will continue with the investigation, and the Straw Hat's will probably continue on until they reach Glacier Bund. They'll be sitting ducks."

"We'll make sure someone is there to meet them, but make sure _you_ inform me if something else happens."

"Oh trust me. I will. And make sure you use an appropriate photo when it's presented to you," he finished, setting the snail down and slamming the door on his way out of the office.

* * *

><p>"Rumors will always circulate, the dumber the better," Mori muttered, continuing up the dirt path towards his house, Sanji and Robin on either side of him and everyone else following behind. "I've found they're effective in keeping curious pirates," he glanced at Sanji, "from sniffing around where they shouldn't be."<p>

"We aren't interested in whatever you have hidden," Sanji explained. "It's mostly Nezumi's involvement. We were surprised to see him again."

"Oi, Mori," Luffy whined, Nami's passed out body lifted up over his back, "you got meat at your house?"

"We're not going there to eat, idiot," Sanji informed him, this being the third time Luffy had asked since they'd started walking. "We're getting Franky and then we're leaving."

Mori laughed. "My mother hardly ever calls when I'm working, but I use the den-den mushi as an emergency line in case something happens while I'm not at the house. I was surprised to hear she wanted to meet the rest of you simply because she'd found someone worth entertaining."

"In that case, if you'd like, I can make dinner for all of us," Sanji offered with a smile. "It's the least I can do for bothering you this much."

"Sanji-kun is an excellent cook," Robin vouched, ignoring the adoration radiating from the blonde now. Mori blinked in surprise.

"You guys are certainly different than most pirates I've met." He thought for a minute and then chuckled. "But I suppose this matches up with some of the stories I've heard."

"We're famous," Chopper sighed happily, wriggling a little while he and Usopp let the stars of delusion filter through their brains.

"Idiot's," Zoro muttered, glancing at Luffy with slight concern. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'll feel better when Nami wakes up, though," he replied, shifting her so Chopper could feel her forehead when he waddled over.

"She tried to wander off and find the rat bastard by herself. Thank god Chopper went after her. Who knows what could've happened if he hadn't gotten to her before she keeled over," Usopp said seriously, face hidden by his hat. "Makes me sick that he wasn't kicked out of the marine's for his conduct."

"She had a high fever while we were running errands with Robin, but it's gone down since you've been carrying her," Chopper mused, blinking at Luffy. "I thought I might give her medicine, but she's recovered very quickly."

Luffy grinned toothily. "Course. Nami was really sick when we found you on Drum Island, so this kind of sick is a piece of cake for her."

"Are you seriously trying to give the doctor your diagnosis?" Zoro grumbled, sweat dropping. "If we left all of the medical treatment to you we'd probably be dead." Luffy scowled at him, especially when Chopper nodded in agreement.

"If that girl needs to rest, you can stay at the house. My wife runs a bed and breakfast out of it since it's so big," Mori offered. "I have no problem with it. I won't charge you. Especially if tonight's dinner is as good as you say it will be."

"Nami-san could probably use a break from being on the ship so much anyway," Sanji mused, looking to Robin for reassurance. "Sleeping on land might not be such a bad idea. If we leave Brook on look out for the night…"

"Does she get sea sick easily? That's hardly a good quality to have while sailing," Mori joked, suddenly feeling his companions tense at his questioning. All except Luffy.

"Nami's sick because I put a baby in her," he offered, Robin the only one who didn't fall over dramatically at his explanation. Mori blinked, a slight blush dusting over his nose.

"DON'T SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT SO CASUALLY," Sanji yelled, tears of remorse running down his face. He was punched by Chopper who told him to quiet down so Nami didn't wake up.

Zoro clamped a hand over Luffy's lips and scratched his own neck awkwardly. "What he means is that our situation is…complicated…and…yeah. Nami ain't 100% right now and probably won't be until…uh…"

"I'm so glad we leave the explanations up the articulate members of this crew," Usopp murmured when Zoro let his sentence trail off and glared at him.

"I'm sure you can understand the weight of this particular information," Robin said quietly, coming up next to their host. "As pirates, it is dangerous to have a member of the crew with child. If that information were to be disclosed, perhaps, to the authorities on this island," two arms appeared at the sides of Mori's neck, fingers tracing the place where his life blood flowed, "we might have to deal with this in a less than civilized way."

"Aw, don't kill him, Robin, we gotta eat first," Luffy complained loudly now that Zoro had let him go. The only reason he was escaping so many fists and kicks was because of the girl he was currently carrying.

"I don't really care that she's pregnant. I'd like to live a little longer, if you don't mind," Mori said with calm sarcasm, Robin letting her arms disappear. She smiled warmly now that her assassin face had been put away for another time.

"We have no intention of imposing upon you or bringing you trouble, but what Robin-chan says is true. We cannot allow this information to get out," Sanji said, giving Mori a serious look. "It would be considered a weakness and we might be targeted because of it. Nami-san might be put in more danger than usual."

"If it's so dangerous," Mori asked, the house coming into view, "then why not hide her somewhere? Why not leave her where she'll be safe?"

Sanji opened his mouth to answer, but Luffy beat him to it.

"Because Nami is my nakama," he said with confidence. "And the only way I can make sure nothing happens to her is if she is with me."

This seemed an acceptable answer for everyone, their beaming faces reflecting their same thoughts. Mori smiled a little.

"I like you guys. Come on. I'll introduce you to my family."

Luffy continued walking with everyone, smiling when he felt the tightening of shirt fabric tucked into frail fingers.

* * *

><p>The smells of fresh sheets and Sanji's cooking were what accompanied Nami's first few blinks into full consciousness. Her brown eyes didn't show surprise at waking in an unfamiliar place, but they were interested in her surrounding's regardless. She couldn't remember being put into the bed or how long it had been since she'd passed out, but she remembered the nice words she'd heard during her brief moment of wakefulness on the hill and curled under the sheets to have a personal moment of happiness. It ended when she realized she still felt kind of sick.<p>

_It never ends…_

The level of icky was tolerable, so she sat up and moved to the bathroom. It was bright, like the room itself, if just a little bit small. Then again, living on a huge ship had probably given her less than realistic expectations for a lot of things lately. She noticed the towels and wash cloths hanging up also matched the dark blue of the bed spread, and the wall paper had intricate designs in the same color. Very well thought out.

_The wife probably had to pick these out. He didn't seem like the type for color matching._

She finished peeing and washed her hands, lost in thought. The mirror revealed the toll her illness had taken on her; skin pale and dull, eyes still a bit heavy despite her nap, hair tangled and looking in need of a shower...

_Luffy never even considered letting me leave._

Sure, she could chalk that up to him being too dim to think that far into their situation. But that didn't stop her from smiling goofily.

Nobody had objected to his decision to keep her with them. Nobody had even complained about the potential dangers of having her there. But, Mori had made a point. Nami herself should have been thinking more about the idea of finding somewhere to reside until the baby was born. And then Luffy's point: was it safer to stay than risk being found alone somewhere while they continued on? Who was right? It was so easy to believe in Luffy, but believing blindly was his thing. Nami wasn't so romantic.

And while she was dwelling on it, holy shit. _She was having a baby_. Not that this hadn't been a constant thought for the past few weeks, but _holy shit_. What about the rest of her life? What about Luffy's life? Was he even thinking in the right frame of mind? Was ANYBODY? Could this seriously happen? Nami was pregnant, and nobody gave it a second thought?

And then the same thing she had been reminded of just today kept popping up: none of them cared in the sense that it might slow down their progress or make things harder. All they wanted was to keep everyone together.

Nami was going to have a child, and what it came down to was that everyone had accepted this, whether it had been expected or not. And her heart ached every time she thought about this.

_This is real._

Luffy probably didn't fully understand it, but they…were going to be parents. To a living, breathing thing. How would that work?

Her mind clouded with visions of marriage and all kinds of stupid potential moments; him falling asleep on the floor next to her while she fed the baby in the middle of the night, waking up to the smell of their kitchen burning down because he had the brilliant idea that he'd make pancakes with him or her, watching him teach it how to shove chopsticks up its nose like him, and, oh, Luffy don't touch me there, no, we can't, the baby's crying, I have to get up-

She was startled out of her daydream, a loud knock sounding from outside the bedroom door. Her name was called out by the object of her fantasies.

"Be out in a minute, idiot," she muttered miserably, listening to him bound away before he had a chance to hear her answer.

_This is going to be tough._

* * *

><p>"Thanks, Luffy," Sanji said, bringing out Nami's meal and setting it at an empty place on the gorgeous dining room table. Everyone else had already eaten, most of the crew as well as Mori and his wife and mother watching Franky dance.<p>

"What'd ya wanna talk about?" Luffy asked, leaning his elbows on the kitchen counter and watching Sanji put things away. He was handed some dishes to wash, so he went about doing that.

"Just some things concerning Nami-san," the blonde answered, opening a small window and lighting a cigarette. Luffy smiled and waited for him to continue.

"So far," Sanji said quietly, "I'm proud of the way you've helped her. The way you've handled things. Even if, ya know. This is tough."

"You said it would be tough, but I guess I'm not the one that gets sick all the time."

Sanji grinned. He secretly loved it when Luffy noticed shit on his own.

"I guess what I'm saying is to keep being supportive. She needs it. I'm no medical expert like Chopper, but I'll be damned if I don't teach you how to be a gentleman."

Luffy grimaced. "I don't wanna wear suits."

"You can't have any of my suits anyway, dumbass."

He brought a clean set of silverware out from the drawer he'd been shown and polished it with a towel as he journeyed back into the dining room.

_You're too stupid to realize it right now, shitty captain, but if it's for Nami-san's happiness, I will do anything._

He smiled to himself.

_Even if that means making you more lovable._

"Sanji-kun."

Nami's voice brought him out of his thoughts and he smiled ridiculously. "Nami-swan! Your supper is ready! I've employed the help of the shitty captain and am about to go quiet our stupid ship-wright down so that you may eat in peace!"

Nami glanced into the kitchen, eyes softening at Luffy's confused look as he opened a drawer and didn't recognize its contents. So easily disoriented…

"Sanji-kun, I want to thank you," she said softly, sitting in the chair he pulled out for her. He put a hand on her shoulder and she patted it. "I know it's because of you that…well, thank you." Her face was hidden by stringy red hair, but Sanji felt the small quiver in her shoulder's that accompanies the urge to cry. "It helps me a lot. To know everyone's okay with this."

Above everything else, she had been worried about his acceptance of this. Sanji-kun's devotion to his crew, his ladies, his captain…all of it was a reflection of his character. In her heart, what she had just been mulling over personally, she found melting away under his brotherly kiss to the top of her head.

"Someone's gotta teach him how to be a man," he muttered, replacing his cig and walking back to help Luffy. She nodded and started eating her food.

_Luffy lost his brother. Maybe it's conceited to think any of us could fill that gap, but-_

"Oi, shit for brains metal guy! Pipe down! Nobody wants to see you dance in that stupid thong thing anyway, ya jerk."

* * *

><p>"We're under twenty-four hour surveillance," Mori's wife, Tanaka, said quietly now that everyone was settled in the living room. Most of the crew sat on the floor to listen despite Mori's offering to get more chairs. "It's not an easy way to live. But the worst part is when they come to the house when Mori's not home." She looked at her husband with pained eyes. "They're much more pushy in trying to get in to search the house. And they pick random times of the day to try to catch us off guard."<p>

"What they don't understand is that we don't have it here," the grandma burst out dramatically, flinging her cane at Usopp and hitting him in the nose. "None of us even know where the goddamn thing is." She paused and then laughed when her daughter in-law gave her a disapproving look. "Well, except for my son. But he is bound to keep the location a secret."

"So none of you even know what this…Vigil Light…thing…looks like?" Franky asked.

"Not a clue," the old lady said, shrugging. She yawned suddenly, then her head lulled to the side and she was out like a light.

Mori glanced out the window to his left, seemingly admiring the colors the sky had turned because of the setting sun. He turned to the crew and smiled.

"I'm sure you've all had a very long day. We retire early in this house, so if it suits you, please do the same."

"We're all staying in the rooms right?" Chopper asked. Zoro stood up.

"I'm gonna go back to the ship. Brook's probably tired anyway. I'll take my shift."

Usopp and Chopper grabbed his legs and dragged him away from the door, claiming he'd get lost on the way. He yelled until it was decided he'd stay with everyone else.

"Four rooms divides perfectly then," Tanaka said with a sweet smile. "I went ahead and put Nami-san in the biggest one to rest earlier. I assume she'll be sharing it with Luffy-san."

Nami blushed and hid her face with her bangs, the rest of the crew looking thoroughly awkward. Luffy paused in the chewing of his after-dinner snack to blink.

"I gotta sleep with Nami?"

"I suppose since he is the father of her child it would be easy to assume they have that kind of relationship," Robin mused, Sanji screaming every reason why that was an awful idea in his captain's ear before her arms dragged him down to the ground.

"Oh, I'm…I'm sorry," Tanaka said, flustered, "I shouldn't have assumed it was like that. I apologize."

"There's really no need," Nami said softly, offering the woman a reassuring smile.

_That's right. This isn't a normal relationship._

"I don't mind," Luffy said bluntly, everyone blinking in surprise and letting their jaws slack a little. Nami got whip lash on her way to stare bug eyed at him.

Mori sweat dropped. "Your captain is a hard one to understand."

"We have to live with him," Usopp mumbled. "You don't even know."

Luffy grinned at his navigator, eyes sparkling, "We could have a slumber party thing. I always gotta sleep with the guys, but I never get to sleep with you and Robin."

Everyone died a little inside.

"Our captain is a little slow in his…understanding of the boundaries between men and women," Robin explained. "That might explain in part why Nami-san is in the position she's in."

"I don't need you to feel sorry for me," the navigator gurgled, everyone feeling sorry for her anyway.

"Just don't hog all the blankets and stuff," Luffy said pointedly. He looked up at the ceiling and tried to remember some other things his potential bunk mate should know. "And you can sleep on the side of the bed closest to the bathroom. So you don't puke on me."

"You aren't even worthy of my puke," Nami growled. "And you'll sleep on the floor."

Luffy's eyes bugged out. "NO WAY! Wait," he turned to Robin and gave her pleading eyes, "wanna switch, Robin?"

Robin smirked and pushed a piece of raven hair behind her ear. "No can do, Senchou. I already had a bunk mate in mind…" Franky felt eyes on his back and he sweat dropped. Sanji screamed, assuming he was her first choice and leaking nose blood through the hand she pushed over his face. Luffy's mouth fell and he turned back to Nami.

"Wanna switch with someone else?"

"Nope," she sniffed, determined to torture him now that they'd reached this point. "I want the big bed. And I honestly don't think anyone else is too keen on sharing it with me, the girl who pukes on people."

Luffy glanced at his faithful male friends, all trying their best to act like they weren't hearing this conversation. He narrowed his eyes and puffed his cheeks out, preparing to use the 'I'm the captain' card.

"I'd feel more comfortable if you were with her," Chopper said positively. "She seems to feel better when you're close by."

The two in question blinked at each other. Nami had to admit, she hadn't felt sick nearly the entire night. And sources told her his gallant gesture of toting her up the hill to the house had helped her fever from earlier subside. Perhaps she was in one of those cheesy romance novels Robin liked and her love for Luffy just made all the pain of having her hormones fucked up by a fetus go away?

"Ooooh~ noooo~" she moaned exaggeratedly, leaning over Luffy and holding her stomach, "I don't feel so weeeeell~"

"GOD DAMMIT, NAMI," he screamed, leaping away and landing on Sanji, who, now free from Robin's grasp, tried to shove him away.

"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE" the old lady shrieked from her chair, apparently not as asleep as everyone thought she had been. She looked around like she was confused for a moment, then went back to snoring. Mori laughed.

"Well, I'll help you all get settled for the night, and then perhaps we can talk more in the morning." Tanaka took that as her cue and showed the remaining crew member's without a room where they would be sleeping. Luffy glared at Nami from the floor.

"I'm tired, Luffy," she sighed, her eyes softening. "Let's just call a truce and get some sleep."

He pouted but followed her back to the room.

* * *

><p><em>This…was an awful idea.<em>

Nami had donned the long, cotton night gown Tanaka had given her to use, but she hadn't thought so far as to what Luffy was going to sleep in.

Apparently, not much.

Even if he was still retarded on the inside, on the outside…well, Nami was just thankful she couldn't remember any of the sexy-time she had spent with him and his abs…and his ass…and his chest…and his peni-

"UWAH! THIS BED IS HUGE," he gushed, jumping up and bouncing like a five year old. Nami watched his junk for a minute, looked down at her stomach and shrugged, turning to give herself a half lidded stare in the vanity mirror.

_I could've done worse._

"Put on some goddamn pants before I come up there, drag you back to the bath tub and drown you."

He jumped one last time, sprawled out on the bed and giggled.

"You're getting the bed all wet," she scolded, moving to go wash her face. He rubbed at his eye sleepily with one hand and sighed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Hey, Nami?"

She blinked through the water in her eyes and gave him an annoyed, "Hm?"

"Can you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"The baby," he said softly, turning a little to look towards the bathroom. "Does it move in there?"

She turned off the light and peeked out to look at him. "No. Not yet at least."

"Will it eventually?" he asked, eyes big. She smiled a little and moved to the other side of the bed, throwing his shorts over his face as she did so.

"Yes. It has to develop first. Right now," she said as he shoved his legs through the pant holes and listened, "it's growing, and doesn't really know things like you and me."

He buttoned himself and flopped into a cross-legged sitting position, facing her in their usual knee-to-knee fashion. He didn't hesitate to reach out and touch her stomach. She let him.

"So...you said it grows...like a plant...but it looks like a person?" he murmured, tilting his head. She shook her head and laughed.

"It hasn't grown that far yet. Chopper says that soon it will be able to hear things, though. When it's got more organs developed." He looked confused so she pointed at him. "Like, we're having a conversation, it might be able to hear us talking."

His face lit up. "That's kinda cool."

She smiled and rubbed her own stomach. "Yeah. It is kinda cool."

He watched her fingers move, then absentmindedly reached out his own pinky to touch hers. It was a very slight gesture, probably nothing compared to what they'd done, but…

Their eyes met, and he held her gaze, wondering at why she looked so…sad? Hm.

She blushed softly when he moved his face toward hers…

"Do you have to puke?"

Yep. Nami was definitely not in a romance novel.

She was about to reply when the dark of the room was suddenly pushed away by the violet glow of something outside the large window on Luffy's side of the bed. He followed her eyes over to it, his own widening when he noticed it too. He stumbled away from her and positioned himself in front of the glass, staring out at whatever it was. He didn't motion for her to join him, but when he didn't shrug it off and come back to bed, that was enough to make her worried.

She came up behind him and her look immediately reflected his own of unblinking awe and uncertainty.

Further up the hill behind the mansion, near the edge of a cliff, sat what appeared to be an old light house.

_"It's been out of commission for a while now," Mori said cheerfully, patting Chopper's head. "Since before I was born even…"_

"Nami," Luffy said, the hair on his neck standing up and his voice holding just a hint of a quaver, "You see that, right? You see it?"

_"This family used to be made up of light house keeper's, back when ships pulled in from all over," the old lady chortled. "We're a family of-"_

"Light house…keeper's," Nami whispered eerily, Luffy turning his head to look at her. His eyes widened further when she started mumbling to herself…

_Light._

Nami pushed past him to press her palms to the window, the purple flames dancing over the top of the crumbling building.

_Vigilance through the night…_

An intense sense of peace slipped over her body and she nearly fell over, Luffy catching her before she passed through his arms and calling out to her.

"Nami!"

_For those who might be lost…_

"Shit, Nami!"

_Souls that shame the raging pyre…_

Luffy picked her up and stumbled out the door. "Chopper!"

_The key's the eyes; so lift them high…_

"SOMEBODY!"

_Behold the light of Mazu's fire._

* * *

><p>"Why am I here again," Nami said, watching Chimati knit what appeared to be several strands of what he had shown her the last time she had been to her sub-conscious. He gave her a very casual, very comedically stern glare.<p>

"You didn't read the manual, did you, kid."


	10. The Vigil Light pt 3: The Nameless

Ice drifted, milky gems over a black, watery inset; the gateway to the harsher dealings of The Bund eerily silent under a moonless sky and the deathly quiet within the Drake Pirates' ship.

A youth, maybe sixteen and wide eyed to the world he was dancing with sat on the upper deck, polishing his gun and smoking from the nostril's with cold.

"D'Artagnon," came the warm, raspy voice of Athos, climbing the stairs to greet his young charge, the last pick-up from a burnt village left to fend for itself.

"How is the captain?" the boy asked, dirty blonde hair falling over his still fairly shy eyes. The older man nodded his head down toward the main deck and eyed him, suggesting he stand with him to look. He obeyed, setting the gun down and letting the grey of his eyes darken considerably with the sight of Drake himself.

"He tries," Athos started slowly, "to a certain point, to keep these things from us. He knows that, nobody ever really cares to speak of them."

D'Artagnon was silent, knowing he would hear more.

"He sees faces. In dreams," the man continued softly. "That is what he says. 'Always,' he says, 'Always brown…'"

"Brown, sir?"

"Aye," Athos confirmed, nodding and watching Drake move to an out of sight part of the ship, the navigation room if he had a guess. He turned his eyes to D'Artagnon.

"You can understand…the purpose of this crew," he said, leaning over the railing on his elbows. "You are still young, though. And you haven't long been with us…"

"Sir?"

"You haven't heard the captain's story," he mused, eyes downcast. "You should know what's behind a man who would chase another so fervently across the sea..."

* * *

><p>"We've confirmed movement within the house," one of the two marine's on watch that night claimed, standing in the doorway of the outpost with his coat drenched and his face wind worn. "We can't tell if it's a struggle or something else."<p>

"God DAMN Straw Hat," Nezumi fumed, thrusting a pile of papers off his desk and hurling a pen at the wall. "It seems he can't help but ruin everything I put effort into." He rubbed his temples, fatigue and lack of sleep getting to him.

"Figure out what's going on," he finally ordered, turning around. "If within the half hour you can't confirm Mori's alive, I'll go over there myself. What the hell is he thinking? You invite pirate's to sleep under the same roof as your family…"

He trailed off thoughtfully, the tiny, fairly sharp mechanism's of his experienced and cunning brain sensing something was amiss.

"Mori is not the type to let just anyone in that house," he said slowly. "He knows they're pirates. And he knows we're watching him. It's like he's asking us to break down his door."

"Sir?"

"Find out what the hell is going on inside. I just have a feeling…"

* * *

><p>"He says he sees something," Zoro muttered, he and Sanji both hanging loyally by the door in the event they were, under desperate circumstances, needed. The blonde shifted his inverted brow and scratched his head.<p>

"There's something we're not getting here. And it's probably not going to get any less complicated until Nami-san wakes up…"

"I don't know," the swordsman replied, looking down the hall. Robin stood speaking with Mori's wife, and Usopp was listening to them from the other wall. "Chopper's coming out…"

"How do you kn-" Sanji started before blinking as the door creaked open and Chopper appeared, heavy in movement and frowning.

"Nami will be fine," he said, addressing both with what was probably supposed to be an assuring smile. "Luffy says he'll stay with her in case something happens, and he's speaking with Mori-san right now…"

Sanji gave Zoro a look after their youngest crew mate had shuffled down to the hall to join Robin's conversation.

"Alright, Marimo, what are the human's, like me, missing," he grunted, already having sensed the hackles of an overly protective dog being raised in his companion.

"He's going to try something," Zoro confirmed quietly, straining his ears to try to catch pieces of the conversation taking place behind the door. "He wreaked of chloroform when he went inside."

"Oh? Your seaweed senses are tingling?"* Sanji joked wryly, trying to laugh away his urge to smoke. Tanaka had requested he not do it in the house, but that was common courtesy anyway. Plus, he didn't like the idea of smoking while in an enclosed space with a pregnant woman.

"I wouldn't worry so much if Nami weren't in there," Zoro said seriously. "I bet Chopper smelled it too."

They all smelled a rat. Sanji didn't have the nose of an animal, but there were other things that had raised the red flag. And Luffy wasn't backing down from his story, the one with the purple thing in the lighthouse. They had all gone out to look, and it was like a goddamn witch trial; he was the only one that could see whatever was there.

"So sick of this God, voodoo, magic shit all the time," Zoro grunted.

Sanji agreed, but didn't verbalize it.

* * *

><p>Luffy was a forgiving person, if not just easily confused by the motives of other people. He and his crew had been fed and provided for out of assumed kindness. So when he felt that something seemed to settle differently with their host, he decided it might just be nerves. Nami had passed out and was still unconscious, so maybe he was just worried about her.<p>

Up to the point he tried to sneak up on him with that smelly stuff, there hadn't been much need for questioning. And maybe there was a reason for doing all this that he wasn't really getting. It wouldn't be the first time he'd been faced with someone that had a complicated set of circumstances.

"I suppose it was worth a try," Mori muttered, Luffy's questioning eyes darting over his face. "I wouldn't expect anything less from a guy with a bounty like yours…"

"Anybody would've been able to hear you behind them. You're slow," Luffy criticized, like this was a test he'd set up from the beginning. "I didn't even have to use haki."

_Click._

Through narrowed eyes, Luffy looked down at the gun in his failed attacker's hand.

"That won't work on me…" he started quietly.

"I know," Mori said just as quietly, raising the gun to the iron chandelier above the bed Nami slept in. Luffy followed the arm with his eyes, a snake charmed into concentration on subtle movement.

"Before I married my wife, I was a three time gun slinging champion in West Blue. The prize money got me through engineering school."

"You're still slower than me," Luffy reminded him.

"You're passionate," Mori said, "Full of stupidity. Are you familiar with physics, Straw Hat Luffy?"

"Those old ladies in tents that have crystal ball thingies," he replied, completely serious. "And those playing cards with naked people and stuff on 'em."

Mori stared at him. "You have a gift for this, don't you."

"Stop talking or I'll punch you."

"I'm surprised you haven't punched me yet, actually," Mori continued, finally dropping the chloroform cloth in the hand Luffy had restrained. "Considering how slight of contemplation you seem to be. I figured as soon as you found you'd been betrayed, you might be more apt to kill me."

"Why would you do something like this; bring us here, help us…"

"You wreak of God's," Mori spat, narrowing his eyes. "I thought I was imagining things when you first walked into the bar, but you and the girl…you've gone and caused trouble for me in this. I'm either going to eliminate you both here, or-"

Luffy suddenly became acutely aware of the threatening aim of the forgotten firearm on his unprotected navigator and decided he was done with words.

The two idle members of the monster trio promptly kicked open the door upon hearing the smash of glass and two shots ringing out.

* * *

><p>"Shit, what the hell's happening in there," the second marine scout muttered to himself, his partner coming noisily through the brush and hollering for confirmation that Mori was still alive.<p>

"I heard the gunshots! Can you get confirmation on who fired them?"

"I've got two other guys trying to look in window's, but they can't see into the second floor."

"The captain thinks perhaps Mori lured them here. Do you think he was the shooter?"

"Does it matter? This is the Straw Hat pirate's we're talking about. You think two measly bullets means anything? I'm betting he got shot."

"We're not allowed to break down any doors for another twenty minutes. If Mori hasn't shown his face by then, we've got orders to go in."

"I thought he said to not apprehend them while they're on this island."

"Apparently Mori's life is more important than us not getting the shit beat out of us…"

* * *

><p>Robin, Chopper, Usopp and Tanaka gawked from the entryway into the bedroom.<p>

Mori was bleeding from his left arm from being hurled into the vanity mirror, one of Luffy's fists curled into the collar of his nightshirt. But he had forgotten any pain that might have accompanied the injury the moment he'd made eye contact with the beast his words had created.

Luffy removed the barrel of the smoking gun from his own mouth, prying it easily from the fingers he'd forced into firing and chucking it to his first mate. As if to dare the man in his grip to react in any other way but silent fear, Luffy spat the two bullets into his now free palm.

"It doesn't matter if you shoot me," he stated, letting the bullets drop to the carpeted floor. The storm raging through the open window from outside offered Luffy a helping hand in intimidation, highlighting the fury in his eyes with threads of lightning. "But if you ever point anything at Nami again, it will be the last thing you ever do."

Sanji stepped back, caught a fainting Tanaka with a sweep of his arm, and smirked. Luffy had his moments, alright...

"Bones just gave me a report," Franky burst out, loping through the hall. "And…did I hear someone getting their brains blown out? 'Sat Long-Nose's fault?"

Usopp turned to glare at him.

"Nope," Zoro grunted. "But now we've got more bullshit to deal with, apparently…"

"Why is this happening," Chopper sobbed, taking Tanaka from Sanji and going off to put her back in bed. Sanji turned to Franky.

"His spirit came out and said something?"

"He says Straw Hat ain't crazy," the cyborg said loudly over the thunder. "He sees the purple thing too."

"I was gonna ask you about that," Luffy said thoughtfully, blinking when he heard yelling from the yard below. Mori shoved the thick curtains over the open window and took hold of his captor's hand.

"You might as well kill me. I'm not saying anything."

"You will if I have anything to say about it," came the annoyed, noticeably exhausted voice of Nami. She sat up from the bed, stepping over the stray pieces of window on the floor and pushing her way through the throng of bodies in the doorway. They let her pass, Sanji reeling his hand's silent offer of assistance back into his forearm as she barreled through.

"Luffy, I'm getting my climatact. Bring that guy out here. We have to talk."

* * *

><p><em>"I can't keep having these pleasant conversations with you, you know," Chimati scolded, his company sitting impatiently across from where he sat knitting on Mind!Sunny's tree swing. Nami rubbed her forehead.<em>

_"Why am I getting a headache if I'm supposed to be inside my own head right now."_

_"I'm sure dwelling on something that deep will make it feel even better," he joked._

_She shook her head slowly. "You…you really did trick me. You tricked us. This isn't just a game…"_

_"It was never just a game. For anyone involved. You can't expect anyone, especially someone like myself, to take the matter of life too lightly, now can you."_

_"You knew I was…" she trailed her sentence and tried to make sense of all of the things she'd been told, "…you knew about my time on Weatheria, then."_

_"My dear, who in the world do you think sewed that string of fate?" he tsk-ed, jabbing his Godly needle into another anonymous strand. She was really trying not to branch off into the fine details and make her headache worse._

_"I did not trick you," he continued, her eyes sifting through the smoky strands of beard to study his withered face. "The paths just all lined up accordingly is all."_

_"And now it's impossible for us to refuse. You never said anything about a time limit…a quest…"_

_"I said you were going on a journey to find happiness. And you shall," he chuckled, eyes darkening with just a bit of inhuman sadism, "as long as you finish before your term is up."_

* * *

><p>"The wine isn't some magic, happy drink that makes all of your dreams come true," Mori muttered, hands folded on the chair, his mother standing over him with a newspaper. It hadn't taken much persuading from her to get him to talk.<p>

"I've got that part," Nami said bitterly. "Why the hell didn't you explain yourself from the beginning? Is there seriously a need to bring out guns?"

"My mouf huwts," Luffy called from the corner, sucking on a medicinal popsicle Chopper had made. He looked significantly less cool now.

"Waking me up at all hours of the night with your stupidity is one thing," Grandma Mori started sternly, "shooting people is another. Keep talking, Junior."

"Kaa-san, you're not even supposed to be listening to this," he said through gritted teeth, running his hands through his hair.

"Keep sulking and I'll clobber the drama Queen out of you yet," she threatened.

Usopp and Franky sweat dropped. Robin yawned.

"Back to the issue," Zoro growled, attempting to bring them around to the initial conversation. "I'm tired and feel like killing you. I suggest you listen to your mommy."

"I'm going to ask bluntly," Nami said intensely. "Why is that thing on this island, and what does it have to do with us?" She trekked from the interrogation table over to a window at the back of the room, giving herself and everyone else a clear view of the lighthouse.

"I still don't see anything," Usopp murmured, frowning.

"But you do," Nami accused, coming back and leaning over so she could look Mori in the eye. "What the hell is going on?"

* * *

><p><em>"My…term?"<em>

_"Aye. The average woman carries a child for about forty weeks, right?" Chimati said softly. "I'd say that's the most time you can give yourself."_

_"…What am I supposed to be looking for? What does me being pregnant have to do with this?" She stood up and stared at him, wary of the indifference he was still showing despite the panic in her gut._

_"What happens at the end of forty weeks?"_

* * *

><p>"It's not a coincidence," Mori said, leading the pack down the hall and peeking through a window on their way to the basement. "The God's like to make it look like they haven't had much of a hand in the fates they sew, but nothing is coincidence."<p>

"Where are we going? What's down here," Nami asked, crouching so her head didn't hit the low ceiling of the stairwell and continuing on with Luffy, Robin, Zoro, and Sanji right behind her. Robin's eyes widened when they fell on tacked up parchments with maps, scrawled on dates, and history books sitting beside lore and myth on a stone bookshelf.

"Are you a historian?" she asked. He shook his head vigorously.

"I was an engineer through school, as I've said," he uttered pointedly, looking at Luffy. "This is where I do most of my work for…the _family_ business." He ignored the curious looks he was getting and crossed to the bookshelf.

"Did you try to shoot me because you don't want people to see the purple thing?" Luffy blurted out, his popsicle nearly gone. Mori raised an eyebrow.

"In a sense, yes. It is my job, as the blood of my forefather's, to guard that wretched light."

"I'm going to lay it out for you. I've recently found out some disturbing information about what happens if you won't let me have the thing you're keeping in that lighthouse," Nami said with intensity, pointing her climatact at Mori. "You're either about to tell me how I can obtain Mazu's Fire myself, or you're going to help me get it."

"Mazu's Fire?" Sanji repeated, blinking. Zoro said nothing. Robin continued to scan open scrolls around the room, but narrowed her eyes at the mentioning of something familiar.

"Is that the name of the purple thing?" Luffy asked, absentmindedly sticking his popsicle stick in Zoro's hair. He struggled to not giggle after the swordsman hadn't noticed a few seconds later.

Mori stared at Nami, apparently contemplating his next move. When his eyes moved to her stomach, he visibly caved and shook his head slowly. "My oath was to guard this with my life; to make sure nobody ever got a hold of it and had the chance to use it. When I realized pirates had obtained the wine, even after all the work I put into predicting its disappearance-"

"How do you predict something like that?" Sanji asked slowly.

"I am the Primary living descendent of the original 'D' branch," Mori said. "I don't have a last name; no man in my family from the conception of the bloodline has." He blew dust from a worn, aging beast of a book and waded through the awe-struck silence that he'd created.

"Luffy…Luffy is a 'D'," Zoro muttered thoughtfully, voicing what everyone was thinking. Luffy said nothing.

"I know," Mori sighed, flipping until he arrived at the page he was looking for. "That's why we have a problem."

* * *

><p>"There were only three of them, but I didn't like how they were snooping around the sides of the ship. So I gave them a greeting befitting of the underworld," Brook's floating spirit said chillingly, Usopp and Franky a little creeped out.<p>

"You did good, Bones," Franky assured him. "We've got a bit of a situation here, though. You got an update for me?"

"There are men hiding in the bushes to the East of the house," Brook confirmed. Franky nodded and glanced at Usopp.

"You got anything for snitches in your bag of tricks?"

"Tch. Do you know who I am?" Usopp said confidently, adjusting his hat and heading over to where Brook indicated to do his sniper thing.

* * *

><p>"I have no children," Mori explained. "I have charted and planned up to this point, a way to end the bloodline and leave The Vigil Light a mystery for the ages."<p>

"So this 'Vigil Light' is actually Mazu's Fire?" Robin asked.

"Correct." Mori pointed to the picture on the page, a depiction of lightning during a storm. Nami studied it and looked to him to explain.

"Originally, it would gather only if the electric charge was large enough, or the presence was strong enough," he said looking at her. Her eyes widened.

"Ball lightning…"

"In its most basic characteristic's. You are to use it as a means to find Ama."

Nami blinked. "Ama?"

"The realm of the God's on Earth. But because of the high spiritual energy and death incurring obstacles along the way to finding it, you need _that_," implicating the lighthouse, "to cross over."

Zoro narrowed his eyes. "You make it sound as if we're going to have to die to get in."

"In a word, you will," Mori went on, everybody paling a little. "Mazu's fire is a combination of electric charges from in the atmosphere, plasma and the spirit's of the dead."

Nami stared at him incredulously, shaking as she clenched her hands on the table. "The spirit's of the dead?"

"This is much of the reason I was wary to allow you to live," he said gravely. "He who obtains Mazu's Fire obtains a control over incomprehensible dark. But it is needed to locate the entrance to Ama. It is the only known locator to those that have not taken the liberty of using the even _less_ convenient route." He finished pointedly and gestured at Nami's stomach. "Which brings me to why conception under the wine is such a serious issue."

Nami felt Luffy come up beside her. They looked at each other, then back at Mori.

"The wine, you may have been told, makes pregnancy possible, but," he started, flipping further back in the book to something hand written and illegible, "that is not the whole explanation."

"He told me," Nami said, a bit of the fear she'd felt while asleep creeping up into her voice. "He told me we would both die."

"Because at the moment of conception, it bound all three of you to the same pact; that you would find Ama, bring the God's what they want, and receive whatever reward awaits those who don't arrive on its shores as corpses," the eldest 'D' in the room said darkly, turning from the book and pointing at a piece of parchment on the wall. "I have a gift for Sooth Seeing, or seeing things for what they are, as many of the pure branch did. You've heard of Gol D. Roger, or, more recently, the death of his son, Portgas D. Ace?"

Nami glanced at Luffy's face in the dim light. It was obscured by unruly hair.

"He was my brother," he said quietly, not exactly disturbed at the mentioning of Ace, but probably not fond of talking of his death. Mori's eyes softened.

"Their deaths, as I predicted, were followed by appearances of wine. It was my theory that, the wine was a defense mechanism of sorts. It's not really wine, but a genetic mutation; it makes the birthing of monstrous men possible."

"Is that…how the 'D' clan came to be, then?" Robin asked, the first to catch on. "They were created for the specific purpose of guarding the entrance to this…spirit world?"

"Gol D. Roger obtained immense power and hid a treasure beyond comprehension on Raftel," Mori said, brushing a hand over the parchment. "He died challenging every pirate who would listen to find it."

"Is that Ama? Raftel is actually Ama?" Sanji asked, clutching at the cigarette pack in his pants. Mori snorted.

"Of course not. He could have, in keeping with the pattern, created a decoy to distract from what everyone should _really_ be after."

There was a collective silence while he walked over to the desk Nami was leaning on and sat in the rickety looking chair behind it. He nodded at Nami again.

"And you. You're pregnant because there aren't enough Knight's in the mix to satisfy the powers that be. That's my theory, anyway."

"So…I slept with Luffy because…he's a 'D'. That's what the wine wanted," Nami said quietly. Luffy turned a little to look at her.

"Not only that, you pose a serious risk to the entire operation because of what's inside of you," Mori said, looking her in the eye. "The fetus causes unbelievable problems for the mother because the wine's corrupted its development. Not to say it will be deformed or anything, but it'd be bad for you and your mates if you get captured."

"Captured?" Nami could barely say out loud, throat too dry to speak.

"You, as you are now, are a living, breathing treasure map. The baby, as it develops inside of you and you get closer to your destination, strongly senses the presence of gold. Which is what Ama is believed to be made of."

"An island made entirely of gold," Robin mused, blinking in as close to surprise as she usually got. "Do you suspect that's where Gold Roger obtained his fortune? By going there?"

"I fail to see how he could've gotten in without the Fire, but it's possible," Mori said, shrugging.

"Nami," Luffy whispered intensely, "you said the old guy told you we would die if we don't get there before the baby's born, right?"

She searched his eyes. "Yeah. That's what he said."

He smiled. "Then we better get that fire thingie, right? We're going on an adventure, right?"

Looking into his eyes, seeing how confident he was that everything would turn out okay, even after everything they'd just been told…it made her want to believe everything was as simple as he made it out to be. But there was a gap between Luffy-ality and reality.

"Tell us what to do," Sanji said seriously, finally giving in and just chewing on an unlit cigarette to calm himself. "As if I'd let Nami-san die…"

"I die too if she does," Luffy pointed out, glaring. Sanji shrugged indifferently, his captain's jaw dropping.

"This is getting…interesting," Zoro said with smirk. "So we've got a deadline and we're headed for Hell. Sounds like my kind of thing."

"Wait," Nami said, narrowing her eyes, "how do you know all this? I'm sure it's in the manual, but, is this just passed down from your ancestor's?"

"We're all D's," Tanaka said quietly, coming down the stair's with Chopper's help. "Only one man at a time can see the Fire without the aid of the wine." Mori's mother nodded, following behind their procession.

"Some of us have more consideration than others," she said icily, giving her progeny a glare. "If my idiot son had helped you in the first place…"

"They're pirate's, kaa-san," Mori said tiredly. "What would you have me think?"

"Wait," Robin said, still confused, "all of you are D's? None of you have had a last name?"

"This entire island, everyone on it, is nameless," Mori baa-san said mysteriously. "This is the birth place of 'D'. My son left knowing he would return, and rarely is there a desire for a native to leave."

"As you can imagine," Mori himself said with dry humor, "we keep things on a first name basis around here."

"I just thought I'd tell you guys," Chopper interrupted with a worried voice, "that Usopp and Franky have declared war on Nezumi's men. There's a mob of them headed for the house."

"Shit," Mori muttered, getting up and leading everyone back up the stairs, "I bet they heard the gunshots earlier and think I'm dead."

"Well, whose fault is that?" his mother crowed, slow to climb the stairs as he and everyone else ran back up to the main floor.

* * *

><p><em>*Chloroform is commonly produced by seaweed. ;)<em>


	11. The Vigil Light pt 4: Before The Storm

"He's just…sittin' there," one marine whispered to another, their whole group standing and staring at the bizarre…well, maybe not bizarre for somebody who wasn't Roronoa Zoro, blood thirsty demon extraordinaire, but, in this case, sitting in the grass and doing nothing was a little off putting. Everyone had expected some action when he first made his appearance by stalking out of the house. This by comparison was, to be honest, kind of a disappointment.

"…Why isn't he doing anything…"

"Isn't he supposed to be trying to kill us?"

"What the hell is this? When we heard Roronoa Zoro'd come out we came around to provide backup…"

"Is he making fun of us?"

Collective neck hairs stood on end when his one eyelid lifted up over his eye and everyone got a look inside Tartarus.

"Oi. What are you bastards waiting for." His glare choked like a noose, and whether it was instinctive or not, almost everyone felt the urge to clutch their guns closer. "Come and get me."

"He…he's not serious, is he…"

"He's just waiting for us to come to him?"

"What are we all afraid of," one of the more ballsy soldier's said through gritted teeth. "If he wants us to go get him, let's not let a pirate make fun of us."

"I dunno, it just doesn't feel right…"

"You gonna keep a man waiting?" The gruff call of a now audibly irritated swordsman brought everyone back from their individual conversations. He narrowed his eye and muttered, "I'm trying to repent here. Come and take me in."

"THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN," everyone screamed from the safety of the trees. One marine stormed forward a few steps and yelled out, "Like we'd believe something like that! What, do you think we're a bunch of idiots who have no idea what's going on? Take you in? HA. You're one of the most wanted men _in the world!_ There's no way we'd just come over there and take you into custody, right?"

"Actually, that sounds pretty good," some of his colleagues murmured. "Maybe he's sick of fighting against the good guys only to be rewarded with constant misery and a life without gratification."

"You can't be serious! _He's a wanted criminal_. I doubt he'd just decide one day to start leading the life of a _good _person."

"It's probably hard to land any attractive women with a bounty of that size on your head, eh, Roronoa Zoro?"

"It's better over here on the winning team…"

"Also, it's probably hard with hair like that, huh…"

At this point, a couple guys started tearing up at the thought of what kind of life this criminal had lived.

"We are such good guys…with such tender hearts…"

* * *

><p>"Easy, Zoro," Usopp muttered witheringly, he and Franky parked in an upper floor window near the front of the house and acting as backup in case Zoro's role fell through. They hadn't anticipated the pity he might garner by pretending to let them take him into custody. Either it was a brilliant attempt at reverse psychology and the marine's had seen through their ploy, or they were all just as stupid as Usopp had hoped. Though, it wouldn't matter either way if the veins throbbing in Zoro's neck and forehead burst. Or he killed everyone. Whatever came first. Probably a combination of both.<p>

"Yeah, we tried pitching that idea, but Blondie went nuts and then passed out," Franky muttered into the mini den-den mushi he was using to speak to Robin. "It works either way. I mean, what would knock you off guard more? Zoro-aniki letting somebody take him to jail or Brow-aniki in a dress? That's a 50/50 if I've ever seen one..."

"Ask her what's going on. Have they at least reached the light house yet?" Usopp asked with some concern. "I'd think Brook is almost finished with things on his end. Chopper's back on the ship."

"_He hasn't been contacted yet, but with so few marines around I can't imagine he'll have any trouble_," Robin's voice spoke. "_And Chopper-san already called from the ship_." She seemed to pause on the other end but finally said, "_And we have reached our destination…_"

"And?" Franky encouraged.

"_I'm just a little bit concerned about what's going to happen._"

Franky and Usopp looked at each other and frowned before Franky asked, "There a specific reason for concern, or is it just general?"

"_…Well, perhaps both…_"

"If you're there, I'm sure nothing will happen."

"_It's not that. I am not a woman of science, really…it's difficult for me to understand…the procedure Nami is going to go through._"

"You make it sound like surgery," Franky said, wincing. "Just be careful. Like you usually are. Everything's gonna be fine."

"Meanwhile, on our end," Usopp muttered after Franky finished with Robin and turned to listen to what was going on outside, "we finally get a solid estimate of how much Zoro's ego can take…"

"What'd I miss?" Sanji whimpered from the couch, a cold cloth Tanaka had put over his forehead falling to the floor. "Did Nami-san leave already? I have to catch up to them…"

"Too late, Fancy Boy," Franky informed him. "They're already at the light house. We had to use Zoro as a decoy 'cause you blacked out."

"YOU WANTED TO PUT ME IN THAT KIND OF OUTFIT," Sanji screamed, gesturing at the dress, still crumpled and laying over in the corner Sanji'd kicked it to before keeling over. "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?"

"We just figured since you're the most _gorgeous_," Usopp pouted innocently, batting exaggerated lashes. "You should be flattered."

"I'll kill all of you…every single one…"

* * *

><p>"This is where I built everything," Mori said over his shoulder, the light from his flash light moving over walls planked with wood and rusting piles of metal scrap. Nami avoided the sharp edge of something in the path and frowned.<p>

"They think it's completely out of commission? That's why you made a secret tunnel to get inside?"

"I boarded it up years ago. Made a big show of it. Of course, nobody but me could see the crazy thing still sitting in there, but to everyone on the outside, it just looks like a crumbling building." Mori glanced over his shoulder when everyone heard the inevitable 'oof' that accompanied Luffy and tripping over things. Nami waved him onwards, ignoring the small disruption.

"This way though, I can make sure nothing goes wrong. And, when the time would eventually come, give it to someone to take care of…"

Nami shook her head. "I still don't understand how you're able to see the future. You don't have a devil fruit? You're just a 'D'? The original 'D'? What does that even mean…"

Robin laughed, walking a little faster to keep pace after falling back to check in at the house. "I would also like to hear more about your lineage."

"Are we almost there~" Luffy whined. "I thought we would've been there by now. If we're doin' this before the sun comes up and all…"

"Stop butting in when I'm investigating," Nami said sourly. "We should get more information while we're here. This isn't a game."

"We are on a time limit," Luffy pouted, looking away. "I don't really care about all that stuff anyway."

"Well, someday, when_ you_ have something growing inside of you that will either kill you or make you ridiculously rich, it can be all about you," she sneered, grabbing his hand and pulling him over a couple more stray items on the floor he looked tempted to trip on.

Mori sweat dropped. "We're almost there, Straw Hat."

Nami narrowed her eyes and muttered, "Don't avoid my questions."

"Nobody's avoiding anything," their guide muttered, light falling on the metal door a few paces down that signaled the end of their underground trek. They were all silent as he pulled at a series of levers under an iron bar, then pushed on the door with enough force that he had to grunt with exertion. Robin was the only one who didn't have to shield her eyes before stepping in, her look of confusion missed while her two crew mates grimaced and stared at the floor.

"You told me you want me to help you figure out how to control this thing," Mori said, coming up behind them so he wouldn't have to yell over the charge in the air. "The sting in your eyes right now probably isn't the worst of it."

* * *

><p>"This is something I never thought I would see," Usopp muttered, he and Franky poised before the window like they had been and watching the showdown of a lifetime. Their marine friends probably felt the same level of unsettled disgust. There just wouldn't have been a way to prepare for this.<p>

"This…is an ordeal of love," Sanji grunted, fists shaking with dress fabric gripped in them. He tiptoed over cold grass in the preferred outfit of the professionally absurd, but to keep himself from falling too quickly into despair, he wore a blind fold so as not to look at himself. Zoro was not so fortunate.

"THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU CREAM PUFF," he screamed, then thought better of it, sweat dropping and turning back to his therapy group. "I mean, uh, you won't convince me to come back. I'm turning myself in."

"I won't let you beat me, shit-head," the blonde hollered, tripping and catching himself gracefully as he moved over the lawn. "I will be twice as supportive of Nami-san and Robin-chan. _Twice as distracting_."

Zoro deflated and gritted his teeth dangerously. "How thoughtful of you to come retrieve me. Get back in the house. You're obviously not well…"

"YOU SAY SOMETHING OVER THERE? JUST WAIT 'TIL I FIND YOU. I'LL KICK YOUR FACE IN."

"A…lover's quarrel?" More than one marine blinked and struggled not to let their eyes burn in their sockets.

"We're done," Franky moaned, rubbing the bridge of his metal nose. "Girly Curl knows how to bring a show to a grinding halt, alright…"

"Maybe not," Usopp said raising an eyebrow as the screaming from below got louder and louder.

"YOU CAN NEVER JUST LET THINGS GO, CAN YOU."

"I CAN SMELL YOU FROM HERE, MARIMO."

"COME OVER HERE AND SAY THAT TO MY FACE, PRETTY BOY."

"MOLD FACE."

"PRISS WAD."

"TEA LEAF."

"_NOSEBLEED-KUN._"

"…You are a _dead man_, Zoro. When I find you, you are as good_ as compost_. Your _ass_, will be so _grassed_, _nobody will be able to figure out which end is which_."

"Doesn't that create an obvious problem for them?" one guy muttered to another.

"Leave him be, Black Leg! He's found a better place!" one marine bawled from the trees.

"Or better yet, come with him!" another fell to his knees and resounded out. "EVEN IN THE UNSURE WORLD OF CRIMINALS, LOVE EXISTS."

"GO TO HIM, BLACK LEG."

"BOTH OF YOU CAN START ANEW."

"JUSTICE AND LOVE. THIS IS WHY I BECAME A MARINE…"

Usopp and Franky high-fived without looking at each other, wondering if it would be inappropriate to take credit for this.

* * *

><p>"If you'd had to cross paths with them before like I have, you might understand why this is so unnerving," Nezumi muttered, turning off the feed from the video-mushi and grabbing his gun. "Roronoa Zoro and Black Leg Sanji are not the types for party tricks and comedy acts. They're killers. Why aren't they killing…"<p>

"It's an attempt to stall?" his second in command asked, both of them whisking into the hallway. "If they don't want anyone in the house-"

"Even if it were just a stall attempt they wouldn't do something so humiliating. There's a reason it hasn't come to blows yet," he hissed. "For a band of pirates this violent and uncouth to use modesty in a potentially violent situation, there has to be a damn good reason. We're getting into that house."

"Sir, I've just gotten a dispatch from headquarters." A marine wearing an unenthusiastic frown under his glasses and waving some papers walked down the hall from the radio room. Nezumi's eyes widened.

"A dispatch? I told them not to bother sending back up-"

"It's Admiral Smoker, Sir," the marine said, immediately explaining everything with that one name.

"Why the _hell's _he_ just now_ on his way _here_," Nezumi growled, about ready to throttle someone.

"I edited out all the unnecessary language, but," the marine started, sweat dropping, "it seems he was thrown off by the choice in island the Straw Hat's made. He was sure that, because of Straw Hat Luffy's pattern of interests, they would've surely sailed for Basilisk Benator…"

"That is…indeed something to wonder about," Nezumi muttered, their strange behavior already tormenting him without the added knowledge that they'd pulled the wool over Smoker's eyes. The man was insane. He was infamous for his ability to not give fucks in places fucks weren't usually anything less than necessity, and it sounded like that reputation would finally rain Hell on something Nezumi was involved in. He would have to figure out the situation before he arrived.

_We're going to have to force them into some corners…_

"Get us in the house," Nezumi muttered to his second in command. "We're not much of a match combat wise until Smoker gets here, but I need Mori alive, and I needed him an hour ago."

* * *

><p><em>What a troublesome development…<em>

Brook's soul returned to his body, him immediately moving to carve a hole in the large window of Nezumi's office so he could get inside. He wasn't too concerned about somebody finding he'd had to improvise his entrance. The plan was to be long gone by the time something like that was worried about.

Nezumi was manageable. Smoker would doubtfully give them much room for escape if he could help it. Hopefully the group headed to the light house had already started working on obtaining the…whatever that strange thing was…

He climbed through the window, moving over to the chest near the door where he'd seen Nezumi take out a set log pose. He doubted Nezumi would follow them after they'd left, but if Smoker got involved, they'd need every advantage. They didn't have a headquarters to call up to get coordinates from. If they intended to escape at all, they would need the log pose, and it was Brook's job to figure out the safest route to take if Nami-san wasn't able to make it herself right away. Maybe Robin-san could help…

He shivered when he had climbed back through the window, his bones pulsating, almost as if he had a heart. But he didn't have one. His afro quivered with the wind, him rounding the corner to stare out at the foreboding leak of purple in the light house.

_I do not like this._

He'd felt it when his soul had come out to do its investigation of the building, a kind of suction in that direction. His celestial body had been moved by the force. Mori had assured them that, even if he wasn't completely sure what would happen once they'd obtained this light, that no physical harm would come to Nami-san. What he had not explained, was why there would be cause for question. All skull jokes aside, his skin would be crawling if he had some.

Just the sheer energy of this thing…he himself didn't have cause to worry over physical ailment, but Nami-san was early in her pregnancy.

Luffy-san and Robin-san would never let something happen. Nami-san was in good hands. Ah! And because it was Robin-san, as many hands as she could need!

He paused in climbing back into the basin of the island towards the town, the pulse still bothering him.

_I would very much like to get off this island…and as quickly as possible._

* * *

><p>"Nami," Luffy muttered, snapping her out of her thoughts.<p>

She couldn't catch her breath. The room was pressing on her chest, and even though the light was tolerable now, she felt what could only be described as an unravelling of her mind. Every thought she'd ever thought up to that point. Like she'd been living life and curling everything into a ball, and everything in this room was untangling it to an unnatural clarity. It scared her to think about it, and yet, she felt…_powerful_. All the wisdom of an eternity of lost lives whispered in her ears, pulling out all of the disgusting things she'd done with her own and making it into something tolerable. It made her want to dance, and it made her want to die.

"This is unreal," she replied slowly, moving forward to examine the device containing the light. It was actually very real, and Mori's hand on her shoulder made her realize some of what she was doing and thinking was no longer hers. He frowned and gently pushed her aside, thick rubber gloves and a rod held in the hand he hadn't moved her with.

"I told you what this is made up of," he hollered over his shoulder. "You're the weather expert, I'm going to assume it's only coincidence you're the one who got knocked up."

Nami glowered. She was learning quickly that nothing was ever coincidence. Chimati was undoubtedly laughing alone somewhere.

"It's attracted to the particles in the air, but I designed the entire base, the caging," he continued, pointing up at the huge structure, "and even though it's significantly weakened by the daylight, I'd hate to see what kind of madness would befall the world if it ever got out without a host."

_Madness._

"A host," Robin said carefully, stepping past a dazed Nami and widening her blue eyes. "You're saying Nami will become host to this? How is that possible?" She couldn't see what they were looking at, but getting closer, she felt the massive weight of whatever had caused him to don gloves and build stone stairs around it.

"It's components are similar to real lightning so if I ever got too close I'd get fried. That's why I have to wear gloves," he explained, "that's why you need the key to be able to obtain it."

Robin caught on. "The wine?"

"It's already attracted to it," he muttered, pointing out the pulsating purple waves struggling to reach Nami through its prison. He wielded the rod and swung at them, the sparks immediately dispersing. His voice was curt through his smirk, "What do you think I had to make this out of?"

"Sea stone," Nami said breathily, Robin frowning at her.

"Oi~" Luffy called, poking around what appeared to be an abandoned, makeshift laboratory on the other side of the room, "What's all this paper stuff? There's stuff everywhere…"

"What exactly is Nami playing host to," Robin said outright, moving back over to stand next to her. "It seems like there is still some risk to this."

"This, in the best description I can give you, is chaos put into elemental form," he explained. "It is immense, and it is hardly something I would trust anyone on this planet with unless it were an absolute necessity." He came down the stairs and continued, "It's not longer about what I want." Robin gave him a look and he shrugged. "She won't die; if she abides by its demands, the only one you'll have to worry about is him," he said quietly, pointing at Luffy. Robin frowned.

"I believe you've seen how capable our captain is."

Mori shook his head. "He's not untouchable. And something like this can hardly go unnoticed for too long." He sighed shakily. "You can't imagine what it's capable of."

"We always seem to figure out a way to get through things," she said, smiling a little. "You won't have to worry about Luffy."

"It is kind of convenient he's made of rubber," Mori admitted, calling over for the subject of their conversation to join them. Luffy grinned and pointed at the huge structure, not intimidated in the least.

"So, what do we hafta do?"

"You're going to carry her up to the top and drop her in," he said bluntly, quickly following up with, "Of course it won't be a straight drop if you're holding onto her."

"That plan sucks," Luffy said with equal bluntness, like Mori had said the dumbest thing he'd ever heard. "She'll die."

"She won't die. She can't die. That thing has been preened from Hell itself specifically for use in this world." He pointed over at Nami, not even paying attention to them. "You guys might not get exactly what's going on here, because I don't even completely get it myself, but I'm telling you that if there were something else I could do for you, I would do it."

"Luffy," Nami called over to him, voice indicating she'd lost some of the nervousness she'd felt on the way here. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to say something.

"Do what he says."

He blinked a couple times and shrugged, laughing.

"Well, if Nami's okay with it…"

"Just like that," Mori muttered under his breath, sweat dropping. Robin chuckled.

"Nami's not an idiot. She knows what she's doing." Mori rolled his eyes after Luffy, Nami wordlessly climbing onto his back so they could await further instruction.

"I'm the one who's done all the research…"

"Luffy can appreciate the times Nami makes up her mind to do something like this on her own," Robin explained. "He doesn't get in her way."

"Yes, well, that mentality is going to have to evolve a little if you expect to keep her out of trouble," Mori grumbled. He moved to a stack of papers near the edge of the desk and exhaled a heavy breath.

"On with the show."


	12. The Vigil Light pt 5: Brink

"Tashigi."

"Yes, Sir."

"I'm over here, you moron."

Smoker didn't usually take time to dwell on how much he hated the crew of jack off's he'd been given upon receiving his new position and claiming his new found freedom to chase the Straw Hat's. All they did unless he kicked their asses was stare at Tashigi and, as of late, steal her glasses so she had to fumble around the deck doing that annoying thing where she yelled and made other obnoxious woman noises with her mouth. It was what he imagined it might be like being married with kids. A nice house warming gift wrapped up like a promotion, compliments of the New World.

He watched Tashigi reach into her pocket and produce the older emergency pair she kept with her. "My apologies, Sir. The men-"

"Shut up and listen to me," he growled, standing up and ignoring the wind's change in direction so cigar smoke blew in his eyes. "We've got some information given to us by the Rat Pack."

Tashigi nodded and he continued, "I'm not exactly sure what they've got going on over there, but from what I read on the way over, it represents a considerable investment for Nezumi's division. Some kind of treasure. They're afraid Straw Hat and his buddies are trying to find it."

Tashigi blinked. "So, with that information, what role do we play in this?"

"We show up and kick their asses."

Tashigi waited to see if there was more, knew there probably wasn't, and rolled her eyes in knowing.

"Would _not_ receiving any information from HQ have changed that plan-"

"You talk way too goddamn much, woman."

* * *

><p>The beams and scaffolding that made up the creaking, dusty dome above the structure weren't made of sea stone, so being as careful as he could, Luffy decided that would be the best route to take. Nami was calling most of the shots anyway. It wasn't surprising she knew how to handle difficult situations fairly calmly if it was called for, but she didn't seem scared at all. Even when she'd climbed over to face him while they sat on a beam.<p>

"I can feel it, Luffy," she muttered gripping his shoulders when he'd come to a stop. He set her down in front of him with both hands, confused at why she was shaking if she wasn't afraid. She smiled with her whole face.

"He said you won't die," Luffy said, searching for something in her eyes that thought differently. She tied her hair up and exhaled with a quiver.

"They already told me I won't," she confirmed, looking down at the pulsing purple and then looking back to him. "They said they can help us."

Luffy tilted his head. "They?"

"I don't know how to explain it." And she didn't. She didn't expect anyone to believe her when she told them it was...speaking to her. Well, maybe they would've believed her, but she wouldn't have been able to make them understand why. She was just, pulled to it. The same way it appeared to be pulled to her. Whether it was because of what was inside her or what, this felt like the natural thing to do. However natural it seemed to everyone else was irrelevant. She would do anything…

"I will do anything," she murmured, her voice gaining an echo it hadn't had before, "I will do anything to keep this safe."

'This' was covered with its mother's hand and a thoughtful look from its father.

He was silent for a minute, then asked quietly, "It'll still grow if you do this, right?"

She moved to take his hands from her and ruffled his hair as she got to her feet. He watched her assemble her climatic, then summon a clouded, milky staircase leading down to the larger opening at the top of the cage. She took the steps carefully, noting the stairs were struggling not to disintegrate under the warmth.

_Nobody's going to die…_

Wind rippled her tied hair out behind her, and she let some human insecurity pause her before taking the last step off the Milky Road and into the unknown. Rather than consuming her all at once, her foot slipped into the plasma and the waves stopped pulsating long enough to acknowledge she'd made a decision. The road disappeared when her other foot touched down, and she let it take over; her form disappeared from clear sight.

* * *

><p>"It looks like it's remaining stable," Mori muttered, holding up some hand held device he'd told Robin was for measuring wave frequency. She stood beside him, heart pounding into her throat despite her cool expression. Sweat collected in her palms, so she rubbed them over her skirt. She blinked out of her stupor when Mori turned to her and nodded to the desk Luffy had been looking around earlier.<p>

"There's going to be a point where she has to give it permission to take over, and I can't guarantee what will happen when it happens," he said. "If there is an explosion, the light might be blinding. There is an extra pair of protective goggles on the desk…"

Robin frowned. "If there is an explosion from this range, won't we all die?"

Mori shook his head. "The sea stone will contain it to a certain degree. But the light will then, because it's bonded with flesh and blood, be visible to the naked eye."

Robin nodded, still a little unsure, but went over to search for what he'd described. She reached to grab them from a shelf, when her eye caught the papers Luffy had disturbed. Some were discolored with age, most had notes scribbled all over them. Others had diagrams drawn over large, pieced and taped together pages.

_These are probably what he used to build this so long ago…_

Her eyes wandered to an official looking document nearly falling off the edge of the desk. It, unlike most of the other pages, contained very little outside scribbles. She frowned as she scanned the writing, perplexed as to why it stood out against everything else. The words suggested an incident involving the government. It also had an unfamiliar, official looking seal near the top

_Perhaps they suspected him of conspiracy…_

This could have been something issued long before the structure for the Fire was built. Out of pure curiosity, she reached over and moved a paper covering the bottom half of the letter, and her eyes narrowed with suspicion. She glanced over to make sure Mori was still preoccupied, and folded it away and into her pocket to take a better look at later.

She had suspected there wasn't something completely right about this island, as she was sure other members of the crew had as well. Well, aside from the flimsy connection between the wine and this…thing…they'd encountered. And these people. It was all very strange. Mori appeared trustworthy at times, but he had threatened to kill Nami, and it wasn't exactly any skin off of his back if this plan with the light didn't go through as planned. Unless he did have something to gain from this and he wasn't telling them about it…

There was one thing nagging at the back of her mind, though, even greater than all of the other jumbled doubts she had…

"Mori-san, when I received the call from Franky-san a few minutes ago…"

"She seems to be configuring normally," he confirmed, giving her a reassuring smile. "I know you guys can handle things, but this should be finished as quickly as possible, right?"

"If the higher up marine's get involved, it creates a hazardous situation for us anyway, but we now have a pregnant nakama to worry about," Robin warned, ever protective of the closest thing she had to a sister. "Commodore Smoker is especially something to worry about."

"My mother and wife should be able to help a little, if just to stall," he claimed with dry humor. "Though she seems feeble in her old age and crazy, my mother is not completely helpless."

Robin blinked slowly and asked, "What was your mother's name, again?"

He gave her a look like he wasn't sure where the question had come from and wasn't sure he should answer.

"…I told you nobody from this island has a last name."

"I didn't ask for a last name, specifically," Robin said with slight meaning, coming to stand beside him once more, the goggles fitted over her eyes. She could still see him stiffen a little at being caught thinking too hard.

"Unless there is reason to wonder whether you're telling me the whole truth…"

* * *

><p>"This is actually…really entertaining," Usopp said, blinking out the window. Franky gave one last glance towards the roof, paying no mind to what the marine's outside were thinking. They were currently a little pre-occupied.<p>

"We don't have much time. If that Smoker guy is on his way here, we're gonna have to at least make sure we can secure Nami-nee onto the ship before he arrives. I'm heading down to make sure everything's ready for departure. You go and see if you can lend a hand in making the other group's foot travel a little less dangerous."

"Attacking allowed?" Usopp asked, just to be on the safe side. Franky grinned.

"'Course. Now that we know we've got company on the way, we can afford to have some fun. Just mind where you aim. Whatever we leave behind someone else has to clean up."

Franky kicked the front door open flashily, Zoro scrambling to drag a still blind and cussing Sanji out of the line of fire coming from the roof of the house, and now potentially from Franky's bulging robot arms. He didn't mind that a few stray bullets ricocheted off of them, but glowered up at the two that were supposed to be helping him.

"Oi! The hell kind of aim is that, obaa-san!"

"Whoops," Grandma Mori cackled, looking down with goggles over her face. "My aim isn't what it used to be, Mecha-chan! In my days at the academy, we always shot in the daylight. And I'm getting older."

Franky started. "Days at the academy…"

"All of the good shots are from my lovely assistant here," she finished with a somewhat darker tone, one heeled leg coming up to prop itself on the banister next to her. The rest of Tanaka's body swung fluidly down to take low aim, what looked in the dark to be a shotgun in her hands. Her face was shadowed and hidden by her hair, but there was a strange glow about her eyes that made a shiver run down his spine. The shot rang out; a marine cried from afar about his arm being hit. "Poor girl's been out of commission for a while."

Franky only half listened to that last bit. He was watching Tanaka, from what it looked like, come out of the chilling personality she'd had momentarily to regain a somewhat more demure one.

"Oi! Franky!" Sanji hollered from a couple of trees Zoro'd dumped him to tear away the layer of gay. He'd put on a show, but now it was time to join his rival in cutting down attackers. "What the hell are you doing? Do not allow a lady to take on the ugly task of killing worthless bastards, you bastard!"

Franky nodded, then smirked through his sunglasses.

"It's about to get a little brighter out, everyone…"

He flicked on his nipple lights and practically blinded everyone on the battle field.

* * *

><p>Usopp had apparently drawn the short stick for opponents this time around. Not seconds after Franky'd left him to take the back entrance, but who should show up?<p>

"Party trick boy," Nezumi hissed, gun poised calmly over his shoulder and an impatient finger on the trigger. His second in command mirrored him in facials, though his weapons of choice were nowhere to be seen. To some, that would've been a relief. Usopp knew well enough by now, because of his chosen profession, that it was never that simple. He would've been willing to bet every penny of (Nami's) treasure on the ship that he was probably a devil fruit user.

"We're a bit curious about what's going on," Nezumi continued, whiskers twitching. "Mind showing us what kind of party calls for guns this late at night?"

"Produce Mori-san at once and resign yourself to the government," the one at his side said even more harshly. "You have no intention of passing by this island peacefully. Our reinforcements should be here before sun up."

Mori again. What in blazes was he so popular for anyway. They'd already investigated him how many times? And the guy was kept on surveillance all day. They weren't even sure about this thing Luffy's group was trying to get. then again, nobody could blame them for getting suspicious about the shooting. They were pirates. Pirates and barbaric themes like killing families in their sleep were pretty closely intertwined. None of that was helping Usopp in the least.

He went to open his mouth, then was startled when the door post exploded into a cloud of saw dust and wood splinters next to his head. He blinked in shaking fear when he realized he'd just been shot at.

"Jirougo, there's no need to scare him that much," Nezumi muttered. "This one won't be too hard to crack. He's got basically no skills."

Usopp stared at the man now identified as Jirougo. His hand was raised, finger pointing down the line the offending bullet had taken, suggesting this was in fact his fault.

"But…you don't have a gun," Usopp said slowly, simultaneously trying to think of a good plan of action to take.

"That's where you'd be wrong," his opponent said solemnly. Usopp leaned over a bit to examine the bullet stuck in the wood. He dislodged it and stared in disbelief.

"This…this is _bone_. A finger bone..."

"It's amazing what science has accomplished behind the curtain of a war on piracy," Nezumi said in a bored tone. "Jirougo is one of the first successful prototype's to come out of the lab."

"I'm not a prototype, you ass," his partner corrected bitterly. Nezumi shrugged.

"What the hell kind of devil fruit is that?" Usopp said, glaring. Nezumi shook his head.

"Mon idiot frère, this is no devil fruit."

Usopp's mouth fell agape. "Not…a devil fruit…"

"I suppose in some regard I am a lab rat of sorts," Jirougo admitted, moving forward past Nezumi. "You don't need to know the details, but it is a shame you know so little about what you're dealing with."

"What do you mean…" There was a point in conversations like these that Usopp had learned to read the lull. He searched for a way to beat both of them, waiting for that lull so he could make his move.

"It's not really important I guess," Jirougo sighed. To Usopp's horror, he leaned down and, without a moment's hesitation, began twisting his own arm until the bone peeked through the skin. Blood ran down towards his fingers while his other arm reached over to pull it out. Nezumi didn't seem moved by this in the least.

"It takes a lot out of me to replace the bones, so I usually end up using them this way instead of shots with more considerable trajectory." Having completely removed the bone from his arm, Usopp noticed it had a similar shape to a long dagger instead of what would have been natural. After a few moments, he tested his arm, which had apparently already replaced its missing component. He smiled wryly at the sniper. "If you don't surrender I'll tear yours out too. See if we match."

Nezumi rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Sadistic little shit…"

_This is some sick stuff…_

Nezumi he could take care of despite the presence of a gun. If he was already assuming Usopp was still completely useless (which was more than a little disappointing considering how hard he'd worked on his physique) he would be easy to take down. The other guy was a bother, though. He was probably more used to close combat, whereas the majority of the stars and pops at his disposal were made for long range or for when they had a larger area to work with. Maybe it was time to kick it with some old school flare.

"I don't really get it, but I don't have time to play around here," Usopp said determinedly. He threw down two stars and a smoke bomb, using the advantage the screen gave to grab his weapon and charge out.

"What the hell is this?" Nezumi screamed, iron like vines creeping up to his throat and tying up his arms so he couldn't move. He was completely disabled. Jirougo was quicker and had made himself ready, slicing at the vines as they came.

"He's there!" Nezumi shrieked, the smoke clearing. Usopp stood before the one opponent he had left, what appeared to be a hammer in his hands. Jirougo blinked confusedly, narrowing his eyes at the writing on the side of it.

"One…ton?"

"Damn straight," Usopp gloated, grinning from ear to ear. "Contrary to what this guy says, I'm not just some weakling you can kick around anymore."

"Kill him now, you moron!" came the insistent cry from Nezumi. "There's no way in hell that little shit can carry a one ton hammer! It's a…bluff…"

Nezumi's eyes bugged, their foe's sudden speed making him lose his tongue. Jirougo's face, and the rest of him, smashed into a tree a few yards away upon being fed this so called "bluff". Usopp steadied the trick over his shoulder and came out of his finishing move. He cracked his neck and complained a little about how heavy it was. Nezumi's jaw fell in his lap.

"YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME."

"You caught me," the sniper chirped, throwing some more vines to secure the unconscious Jirougo. He turned to Nezumi and scratched his neck sheepishly.

"It's only 300 lbs."

He and Nezumi both froze, an immense fizzling in their ears causing them both to cringe. The air pressure had just changed. And not just a little bit.

"What in blazes…" Nezumi trailed off, feeling the Earth shake underneath him. Usopp was trying to keep himself grounded a few feet away.

When it seemed to pass, Usopp knew immediately that it probably had something to do with Nami. He took off running for the light house.

"Shit!" Nezumi screamed, falling over and struggling over the ground in his confines. He knew they were up to something.

_Smoker, you bastard, you're never there when we need you..._

* * *

><p>"Brook!" Chopper called worriedly, coming out from preparing the port side cannons. Brook had been helping him haul up cannons from the store room and make preparations for departure, but they'd both felt the quakes and strange, unexplainable drop in temperature. It was significantly colder. Brook lay collapsed on the lawn deck and shivering, the cannon he'd dropped only a few feet away.<p>

"I don't feel well, Chopper," the skeleton said quietly. "You can feel it too, can't you?"

Chopper knew what he was referring too, but he hadn't let it distract him from getting his job done. It seemed Brook wasn't having the same luck.

"Where does it hurt?" he asked out of caution, prepared to carry his friend to his office if the need arose. "I don't know how much I can do for a skeleton, Brook…"

"No, it's not that kind of hurt," he said slowly, attempting to get up himself. "The air…is…denser. Much…heavier..."

The wind blew through Chopper's fur, his eyes still scared for how this would turn out. Their job was to watch for Smoker and make sure he didn't get ashore, or anywhere near the island before Nami was back safe.

The reindeer started a little, his inner conflict finally having time, now that he wasn't shoving it away with work, to make room for doubt. "Brook, do you think this whole thing is…I don't know…very-" He cut himself off, coming out of heavy point in time to see something a little more chilling than he had been prepared for.

Brook staggered to his feet, bones a glowing bleached white, with his soul making what appeared to be a ball of violet, gelatinous goo above his head. His head was tilted in such a way that it trailed out of his mouth by a spiritual string and collected to swirl against the greying night sky.

Chopper stood where he was, not sure if he was supposed to be trying to help his friend or running to get help. In the meantime, he was becoming more terrified by the second. He didn't quite jump, but every hair on his body stood straight up when, with one dry, dead hand, Brook patted the cloud and brought it down to his hands.

Whatever this was, it wasn't good.

Chopper ran for the den den mushi.

* * *

><p>"Island's in sight, Sir."<p>

"Perfect fucking timing," Smoker grunted, focused on the call being tapped over the white den den mushi in the radio room. "Nezumi hasn't answered a goddamn thing. Get us there so we can sort out the situation."

"We've got abnormal wave patterns coming from the direction we're headed, Sir," another marine said hurriedly, like he'd just run from the opposite end of the ship. "The temperatures dropped considerably in an extremely short amount of time. We fear there's a mother of a storm coming."

"Perfect fucking timing," came the second grunt. Smoker wished everyone would just leave him alone to do his work. He couldn't quite pick up everything being said, but it sounded like, through the static and blubbering, that the reindeer wanted a book. Or a snack. The book for a snack…

"Smoker-san!" Tashigi cried, shoving past the two marines still waiting for Smoker to give some sort of response to their reports. She marched over and pulled at his jacket collar unmercifully. "This isn't right. Get out here and look now. This is abnormal."

"Jesus Christ," he finally hissed, throwing his hands out in front of him, pushing himself out of his office and indulging Tashigi's womanly pittle pattle once again. Upon exiting the room, his tone changed. That is, it would have if he'd had something to say other than-

"Mother of God…"

* * *

><p>"Let me go!" Luffy screamed, Robin dragging him out of the light house herself and running towards the rocky outlook that revealed the other side of the island. Mori was beside her, tripping over himself and struggling to get his hair out of his eyes. As soon as Robin's grip on him loosened, Luffy was on Mori, his shirt balled in his fists and their faces mere inches from one another.<p>

"What the hell's going on!" he screamed in his face.

"She's been accepted as the host," Mori tried to explain over the wind. "This is more a danger to us than it is to her. She can't consciously comprehend what she's doing."

"What _is_ she doing?" Robin called, coming over and trying to get Luffy to put him down. As a substitution, her hand came up to grip his throat a bit, her blue eyes burning with the same need for information as her captain. "Tell me exactly what is going on. We went along with this because you said it was necessary, but why? Why must this happen?"

"It's because of the collapse," Mori choked hurriedly, trying to get her hands off of him. "It's the collapse of this curve of space time. It's the timing. I predicted it. I set it up. You're here. It's supposed to go with you. She is supposed to go to Ama…"

"You're babbling, man," Robin informed him chillingly, encouraging him to speak slower.

"_None of us are supposed to be here_," he said with gruff certainty, an almost vengeful fire in his eyes. "The _government_ put us here."

"You said-" Robin was cut off by the sounds of explosive destruction and a wave of heat that pushed herself and Mori to the ground. Luffy resisted it and stared, mouth agape at the thing everyone could now see for what it was.

"She has been reincarnated," Mori declared with quiet grimness. "The Mother of creation itself. First descendant of darkness."

Luffy wasn't listening. He was already running head first into the whirlwind of chaos that still contained his navigator.


	13. Limbo I

_The beauty hungry, idiot hounds that graced the decks of Captain Tashigi's ship, eerily quiet and creaking underneath the unsure whines and blowing wind, instead of leaping for her, now sat on their haunches; frightened whimpers and shivering made her wonder what she could've said to get this kind of reaction. And how she might repeat it in the future…_

_The pack all at once turned and abandoned ship in a wave of painful screaming and desperate pleas to be spared. It was around this time that she felt the sharp scrape of a slow, cutting whip of cold air through her jacket. Her glasses had managed to somehow stay on despite her struggles to stay on her feet, granting her all her physical ability to comprehend the things she saw when she turned to face it head on._

_A ship in flames, huge, untamable blue flames, sailed on white mist towards her own vessel. And oozing off the sides and into the murky waters were inky copies of the bodies that had just left her behind. They howled as they came, jostling for spot to climb up to her, all scraggly and thin with hunger. She lost her breath, the hand at her sword frail and shaking with an unfamiliar fear. _

_Instead of fangs, the mouths were toothless and bleeding, black smoke for fur curling up over the snouts of each and into the white eyes which held no pupils. Her head turned slowly when she saw out of the corner of her eye that one seemed to be missing its front legs and pushing itself toward her without their aid. Bile rose in her constricted throat. The smell of sulfur and bitter chill and…death. They were all dead. _

_Move…_

_Her body did no such thing, stuck in place while she ran damp with sweat, the closest dog letting out a scream too human to mistake: it was her own voice. _

_All the other dogs followed suit, an array of shrill notes pooling over their heads to create a swirling mist of madness. Tashigi, still rooted to the ground, ceased to blink and leaned forward to dry heave while she listened to herself cry out for help, scream for mercy, be torn apart from the inside. All the while, they closed in._

_Move…_

_She looked into the eyes of one now only a few feet away, staggering without a back leg. Her eyes clouded red, watching herself be swallowed whole._

_Move…_

_Once her mind had soaked up her fate, she was free to notice her knees had given way, and she sat in wetness. The convulsing and lack of control over her own bodily functions made it most likely she'd soiled herself. Toothless, moaning mouths now blocked all means of escape, her mind moving to her sword. If she couldn't get away…there was only one way to atone for the festering, maddening wounds to her own constitution. _

_The sword was gone though. Her clothes were gone. _

_Move…_

_Every limb, half down the throats of a different animal, plucked at a desperate note of screaming she had heard previewed only moments before. Hours before? She smirked with text book instability, unable to bring herself to care now, and laughed at her own cowardice, this kind of death befitting for someone so-_

* * *

><p>The splash of water accompanying her jolt back to reality, the events that she'd just lived through—she couldn't shake the<em> feeling<em> she had really just been there—rewinding and replaying while she stared at the grim, cigar-less face of her superior through her dripping bangs. It smashed at her head, brought tears to her eyes that blurred his face and hugged her ear drums so she couldn't hear what he was saying. Undoubtedly telling her to get a grip, _but she couldn't_.

Without a second thought, her hand tore over her waist to find her katana, still where she had remembered it being every single day of her life as a marine. It didn't stop when it had a grip on the handle. Smoker, through her tears, was probably yelling at her to get her to do just that, but it weighed too heavy on her now, too massive for her shallow mind. Her upper body slid up from the deck, briefly noting the soft colors in the sky that meant dawn had come, arm minding its own agenda and unsheathing her sword. Smoker tackled her, ignoring her screams and pained shrieks. After a business-like slap to the face and shake of the shoulders, it receded into gasping and quiet sobbing.

"Tashigi-taisa…" a couple of the men came over with blankets and water, genuine concern etched in their faces. Smoker lifted a cup to her mouth himself and spoke gruffly, clearly, and in short sentences.

"We need you sane. We were ambushed. Half the men still need to be roused. A couple have already tried to kill themselves."

She coughed, burped up the acid that had been tumbling near the top of her stomach, and let him lean her over so she didn't choke. He continued talking, ignoring the mess on his jacket.

"We've got refugees to deal with. Not a lot, but some managed to make it out alive…"

"Smoker-san," she wept bitterly, sword handle clattering to the ground, face yellow with distress, "what…what _happened_…"

"I need you to pull it together so I can find out. The base, the town, it was all blown to smithereens, but the ships evacuated after the first wave came…they dragged Nezumi out of the water…"

She nodded, though her mind was still cloudy, letting him and the other men help her to her feet. Smoker left her with them, discarding his jacket and continuing his trek across the freezing deck shirtless. Mist flowed over the ship and the twitching, otherwise awake and bawling bodies of his crew, the remnants of an attack nobody had seen coming. He climbed the stairs until he reached the very front of his ship, blood spatter reaching this far from where the most prominent scar of their defeat rose up and made him grind his teeth with frustration.

A humongous strip of ice, glacial in size and originating from the shore, had torn through the very steel of the ship, its hold strong enough to keep it from otherwise sinking into the water. One of the men hadn't gotten out of the way in time, body practically ripped in half and dying the ice red. This manner of gloating made Smoker want to punch it until it was nothing but an ice cube.

His eyes wandered to the small beach off the coast of the island, scattered trees and pieces of house littering the shores and floating in the water. He cringed and looked away when he saw a body, or what was left of it, letting waves wash over it until it was carried away by something stronger.

_Just what the hell…_

Grey eyes came to rest and narrow on the charred remains of what looked to be a lighthouse, smoke billowing up from it almost triumphantly, its achievements unknown to him. It moved up, up, until it reached the black bend, an almost invisible line in the sky that had swallowed the ocean beyond it, and was slowly but surely claiming the rest of the land as its victim. The early morning light ended abruptly there, creating the effect that the world just…stopped. Its advance on the island was eerie, but Smoker didn't have time to dwell on it anymore.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed one of the men leaning over the side of the ship. A gun to his head.

He pressed his brows together, eyes slowly closing, the shot ringing out and echoing as it carved more wrinkles into his skin, another trench in his brain.

* * *

><p>"We think he's plain lost his marbles." Chief Master Petty Officer Rorouk guided Smoker through the mess of men shouting at each other to get more first aid equipment, more bread and water for the survivors. Early morning light strained at the dissipating fog, a falsely comforting gray-pink washing over the aftermath of the empty time gap Smoker still couldn't account for. They twisted quickly into a short hallway, the door to the left leading into the infirmary. Nezumi's rambling was audible even before they'd twisted the knob and pushed it open. He gave Smoker a look and added, "We never found Jirougo-san. He keeps screaming for him."<p>

"Sir, there's nothing we can do until we can get closer to the harbor. And on top of that, we've lost contact with headquarters. It will do no good," the man beside Nezumi seemed to be pleading, two other men struggling to pin him down. He was bleeding from the head, probably a concussion, and had a few cuts showing through his torn pants, but was otherwise able to put up enough fight to cause them trouble.

"I'LL NEVER FORGIVE THEM. STRAW HAT, MORI...GODDAMN IT, MAN, LET ME GO, I'LL KILL THE LOT OF THEM…" In his tantrum, he'd managed to shove over a moving table of surgical tools and bandages, all scattered over the floor.

"Sorry to interrupt such a dramatic scene," Smoker growled, pushing aside everyone standing in his way and patients with injuries, ignoring the pale fear that ran across Nezumi's face when he saw him barreling through, "but you and me have some things to discuss." He grabbed the tattered collar under the sharp chin of his supposed comrade, and brought him harshly against the steel wall of the room. Nezumi cried out in pain. Smoker ignored it and started replacing his cigars with one hand to maybe quell some of the anger he felt.

"My crew's all fucked up because someone didn't do their job," came his beastly mutter. "And since you're the one in charge…"

"Get your hands off me," the one being man-handled snarled, baring his ornery teeth. "I have other things to worry about. Most of your men didn't have a snow's chance in hell at life anyway. We've got bigger-"

Smoker pressed his cigars to the other man's skin, the hiss of burning flesh cutting him off and making him reconsider his argument.

"That musta been one nasty bump to your head, because you seem to be confused about the amount of fucks I give about what you think of my crew." His eyes flashed and one sneaking thumb dug at Nezumi's blubbering throat. "You have inconvenienced me in a way that's hard to ignore, so the least you can do is stop sniveling and fill me in on what the hell's going on."

One of the other men spoke up from behind him, "The magnetic pull has been distorted and our log poses are acting up. We've tried calling G-5, but all we get is static. We think it may have something to do with the explosions…"

"What've you got hiding here, you bastard," Smoker mumbled through his teeth's grip on his habit sticks, "I don't care about your fancy job, you tell me why the hell my ship is torn the fuck in half."

Nezumi's mangled teeth gritted, explaining wearily, "There's nothing to say. I've failed my mission. You might as well kill me."

"You don't get the luxury of dying," Smoker decided for him, stuffing his whole body under one arm and turning to the others, ignoring the ratty man's protests.

"This ship is now under my command. Anybody who's got a fuckin' problem with that can throw themselves overboard."

* * *

><p>Tashigi was put in charge of getting everyone onto the two ships that had been salvaged, Nezumi's men staying on the one Smoker had claimed, and the remains of his crew on the other. Half of the refugees were also brought over for additional first aid relief.<p>

"I want investigations conducted with people well enough to answer questions," Smoker ordered the two men standing in the door way, him leaning over the den-den mushi brought over from his own ship and glaring like that would entice it to work. It stared back blankly, unable to fully connect with an outside facility.

"There's too much distortion," Nezumi muttered from the chair he was tied down in, not trying to be particularly helpful but getting bored with watching the vice-admiral struggle. He received an icy look over the naked shoulder of his right arm.

"I'm gonna give you some easy questions to answer," he pulled out low and clear, sitting in the chair across from him. "Shouldn't be too hard to answer for a smart guy like you…"

"Untie me."

"Maybe when we're done."

The rat man sighed with annoyance, looked at the abandoned set of unworking snails, and glared at his questioner. "What do you want to know."

"What exploded. And what does it have to do with Straw Hat."

"That's potentially confidential."

Smoker leaned over a bit more. "So you have an idea of what it is, but can't share with the class."

Nezumi sensed answering wrongly would earn him more pain than he already felt in his head. "When we get out of this compromised area, the snails will probably start working again and you can speak with my superior. I'm not authorized to share this kind of information with-"

Smoker's hand reached out swiftly, two fingers closing on Nezumi's tongue when his mouth opened. He spluttered over the fingers, watching wide eyed while Smoker stretched it to its limit and calmly held one cigar a few inches from it. All the while looking at him with those grey eyes to make sure he got the message.

"You don't tell me what I should do. I asked you a simple question, I expected an answer. So I suggest you talk. While you have the ability."

His head was shoved away, Smoker wiping his fingers on his pants and leaning forward again.

"What exploded."

"I'm…I'm…"

Smoker moved to shove the entire cigar in the stuttering man's mouth, his shrieks for him to stop making him pause mid-air.

"It's difficult to explain unless you understand the division I work in now." Nezumi sneered, sweating and eyeing the cigar. "I presume you'll want to know eventually anyway. We can make this much easier on the both of us."

"Don't advise me about what will ease my irritation with you," Smoker said dangerously, "Right now the only thing that might work is leaving your ass tied up and alone on the beach."

"In the meantime," Nezumi said with a bit more urgency, "this island is compromised government experimentation ground. We need to leave immediately or we'll also be swallowed up."

Smoker narrowed his eyes. "Not so fast. I'm sending a search group back to see if there's anybody who might have survived and is unable to get to the ship's alone."

"That's not an option anymore," Nezumi informed him. "It's already collapsed. Everything is going to be swallowed up. If you intend to save anyone, you need to get as far away as possible…"

Smoker rubbed his temples. "I'm having a hard time figuring out if I should bother asking what all this bullshit is about. Everything that comes out of your mouth wreaks of 'lying bastard'."

"My life is also at stake if we stick around," snarled the tied up interogatee. "You probably already saw it…it hones in on a specific land mass and swallows it whole…"

Smoker thought back to the black bend against the sky, a black dome slowly but noticeably creeping over from the furthest reaches of the island and hovering like a suspended wave over the highest point. Looking from the snails, back to Nezumi, and then getting up and moving to the door, he made his way out onto the deck and stood in the shadows of the hall entryway. He ignored the pair of elderly people being escorted down the hallway, staring up into the sky and losing any words he could've said in response to the other man.

It had advanced. The black was now unshielded by fog, washing over the visible hills like black smoke. It curled over half burning houses and looked to be eating at any structure it ran into on its way towards consuming the whole thing. The sky curved, bowing to the cylindrical hole in its otherwise perfect canvas of pink-blue. A couple men, every once in a while pausing in their tasks to gawk and stand idly, pointed it out to each other. Smoker returned to the office, Nezumi smirking bitterly.

"I work for a special unit funded in part by the royals. The E.S.R.D; Experimentation and Scientific Recovery Department."

Smoker's eyes darted to the small window over the desk. "Never heard of it."

"You're not supposed to have."

"What's that got to do with the black shit in the sky."

"I suggest you get us out of here first. Otherwise we won't be alive long enough to have much of a chat."

The vice-admiral turned on his heels, knocking the chair over as he stalked out of the room and ignored Nezumi's cursing.

"Shut up and don't tell me what to do."

* * *

><p>Zoro sat on the stairs, eyes trained on the grey lines of whatever lay ahead, ship bobbing without any particular direction in the middle of the vast expanse of water. Fresh bandages were wrapped over his left shoulder, his injury the result of being blown sky high on his way back to ship when things had taken a turn for unexplainable. Sanji had suffered worse for the ware; he hadn't been conscious enough to tell his comrade to let him walk himself, so that's when Zoro knew it was bad. He was still in the infirmary with Chopper.<p>

While the physical injuries were something he could understand, it seemed he had missed some of the deeper things that had happened while he and the blonde had been busy with their tasks of diversion…

His ears perked at the brief, emotional man-wail that came from the guys' room, unmistakably Franky. From what Zoro gathered after the initial shouting and urgency to get out to sea had passed, was that someone had died. Considering how he'd collapsed against the helm in a heap of tears and snot after the ship had come to rest, and the hard to decipher blubbering of 'baa-chan', his eyes softened with understanding. Franky had seen a lot of things, but he was still pretty fragile in the heart. It wasn't a terrible quality to have, but the sounds contrasted to the otherwise fairly silent ship like flint clicking together, trying to put a spark to dry moss in the dead of winter. The noise would have been welcome if the underlying reason it was there weren't so depressing.

He looked up to see Robin had come out from comforting him, arms shivering in a thick sweater and folded over her chest. Her eyes were hollow.

"She died in his arms."

Zoro could appreciate the times Robin didn't beat around the bush, but even he had to grunt with the small ache that a statement like that brought with it. He swallowed and asked, "What about the woman."

There was a pause, then she said, "He just cries harder when I ask."

Zoro's chest tightened for his huge cyborg friend. If their roles had been reversed, it probably wouldn't be weighing so heavy on him. Death had already gnawed enough at the soft spots on Zoro's heart.

"And the guy…"

When Robin didn't answer for a long while, he glanced over to see her staring at the lawn. After a time, she looked up at him over the steps and quietly explained, "He told me he had things in the lighthouse to burn. That the government could use it as incriminating evidence if he were brought in on charges of treason." She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and continued, "I…did not understand most of what he was saying, so I thought he would follow behind if I could get Luffy and Nami back myself…"

Zoro saw her bite her lip. "…The building went up in flames…he did not come out…and then I was knocked down by the winds. I was lucky. I was able to hold myself steady with my arms…"

She looked shaky, like she might do something uncharacteristic like crack in front of him if he didn't interject. "…I tried talking to Chopper."

Her eyes widened with interest. "Did he talk about the ice? I wasn't quite sure what was going on with that, but it sounded like something happened to Brook…"

Zoro frowned and thought back to only a couple hours earlier, just after Sanji had been stabilized and they'd both gone back to the deck. Brook had been passed out before, but seemed to be fine when Chopper asked if he felt strange. Chopper, for all his training had made him an even better doctor, still broke out into tears over something the swordsman wasn't sure he could figure out completely. He had seen the light near the general direction of the ship, and the wind they had all experienced had been strangely cold, but from the way his friend was sobbing, it was almost implied that Brook had been the cause of it. And though he carried on and asked Brook _what_ he had _done_ and _why_, Brook remained adamant he had absolutely no recollection of anything up to the point where he had been helping Chopper prepare for departure.

"…I think it was implied that Brook did that," he said carefully. Robin looked disturbed to a point.

"That wasn't just a little ice. It was a wall. We got away because it stopped Smoker…"

"Chopper looked pretty upset," Zoro continued, wondering if he was missing something else. "Brook looked totally confused."

Robin seemed to be contemplating something to herself, but nodded. "I…am wondering how this is all related." She turned to look back at where Franky still hadn't come out of the room. "Even though I can't put all the pieces together, I almost feel like we have a responsibility to figure it out with what we have. People have…" Her eyes hardened a bit. "Lives were lost giving us this thing that Nami…"

They both treaded on her name for a minute, trying to figure out where to begin with that situation. Zoro felt instinctively that Robin had no desire to recount what she'd seen yet, but from a medical standpoint, virtually nothing had occurred. Chopper declared her perfectly fine when Robin had successfully flown Usopp over the rising waves after finding him clinging to his vines for dear life; Luffy had shot himself and Nami over, Nami sleeping peacefully in his taut, shaking arms.

Breath hitched in his throat when he remembered his captain, the insane insistence that she was not, though she looked it, okay. But Sanji was bleeding and Nami was not; she hadn't retained a scratch. Zoro himself had taken Nami from him when Robin came in behind to get him to calm down. Franky had gotten them out of there, and then the damage was assessed more closely.

He and Robin looked up to see Chopper making his way over. Without any of his usual enthusiasm, he muttered solemnly, "Sanji's alright. If you guys wanna go sit with him until he wakes up you can."

They both nodded, pausing to watch him trek the rest of the way into the girls' room. When the door had shut, they noticed Usopp had ventured out from the hold, carrying a scrolled up piece of paper, the light in his eyes flickering with worry.

"I know this is stuff we should all discuss when we're together, but I'm not sure when everyone will be awake…and I need to talk about it while it's fresh in my mind…"

"It isn't a problem, Long Nose-kun," Robin said in her familiar, gentle tone. "I think we all have things we need to discuss. Maybe you can shed new light on what we were just talking about."

"I doubt it, but all the same," Usopp said warningly, "I can't get it off my mind, and, if I'm going to be perfectly honest, I've got a feeling this is only the beginning of our problems."

* * *

><p>Luffy and Brook sat side by side on Robin's bed, staring as Chopper checked Nami more thoroughly. She was still asleep, aside from occasionally speaking something or grimacing like her dreams were requiring more from her than usual. The doctor finished and turned to them, smiling a little.<p>

"She really doesn't seem to be hurt, Luffy."

"We need to get it out of her," he said in response, eyes darkening. "They said she wouldn't get hurt."

"Huh?" Chopper said confusedly. "I just told you there's nothing wrong-"

"It's a different hurt. On the inside." He might not have been able to communicate what he meant with words well, but Brook saw his hand move to his chest and hummed with understanding.

"Luffy-san, did she do something you didn't like?"

He didn't say anything, but looked at his friends and then back at his chest and sighed.

"She sounded hurt," he muttered weakly, "and she was crying."

"Luffy, what did it look like," Chopper urged, looking over at Brook.

"She glowed," he tried to recount, smoothing a hand through his hair, "and then she pulled something out of her mouth. It was glowing too. I thought she was trying to hurt herself."

Chopper's eyes widened, looking over at Brook again. "What did she do after that?"

"She started talking to it. I was too far away to hear, but she sounded…really sad." He replaced the hat that had been sitting beside him on his head. "She was crying. And then she threw it in the air, and it started growing…the ground started rumbling. I was afraid she'd get hurt, so I ran over and grabbed her." The dome of his hat moved with the rest of him, his inward curl to stare at the ground eclipsing it in phases so that Chopper might preview just how trying each thing had been for him to experience.

"She was hurting on the inside."

"The baby is fine," Chopper consoled quietly. "I don't think Mori was lying when he said it wouldn't hurt her."

"I want it out," Luffy said fiercely. "Whatever made Nami like that." He stood up, removing the hat one more time. His companions watched him stare at their sleeping friend for a moment before setting it down on the sheets covering her stomach.

"I've already lost enough. Whether what Mori said is the truth or not, even I can see this isn't something to play around with. I'm going to figure this out, and we're going to save Nami…and…" He lost his sentence staring at her torso, but smiled vaguely and scratched his neck. Then he strode out, Chopper blushing with admiration.

"Luffy's amazing."

"I felt a chill run through my veins," Brook agreed.

Chopper gave him a disapproving frog face while he delivered the punch line.

* * *

><p><strong><strong>AN: ****_Thanks to everyone still reading this and bothering to review. I do fear for some of you, considering the last chapter got twice as many views as the one before it? Hopefully you're not reading this out of order. It's confusing enough already._

_Because I'm sick of trying to find a way to make an all encompassing summary without spoiling anything, I'll be rolling with the cool kids and just using a sentence from the update. When it's finished, though a long way off, I'll find a way to make a permanent summary. I just feel like everyone who doesn't understand how my mind works expected fluff-ville and are sitting here like, 'why'. _

_P.S. I don't mind if he's just not reviewing, but if someone can confirm Inferno's still alive, I'd appreciate it. I'm a little concerned, but too tsundere to show it. It's not like I care about any of you baka's or something. :U_

_*To poor little Foxchicka, your one-shot is on its way, dear. I haven't forgotten. It's just a bit longer than I thought it would be. ;-; _


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